NEWS
Rescue Plan B
The American Rescue Plan Act provides funding that Bend will use to achieve housing goals By Jack Harvel
WWW.BENDSOURCE.COM / JULY 29, 2021 / BEND’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
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he City of Bend is adjusting its budget to meet City Council goals after it was awarded $7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds. The supplemental budget presented at the City Council meeting on July 21 outlined a $13.1 million budget adjustment in total, with a lot of the funds going toward housing projects. Several of the projects will help unhoused populations, like the exploration of an appropriate place for a managed camp. Some $1.5 million is expected to go toward finding a suitable location on city or county land and then managing these camps.
Courtesy City of Bend
fruition. Another investment in facilities for unhoused people is the navigation center the City is seeking a partner for. So far, 14 organizations have applied to manage the navigation center. “Those dollars are outside ARPA funds, they are state funds. We have already received the check, the money is in the bank and we are in the process of identifying the appropriate community partner to go ahead and bring that navigation center into reality,” Eagan said. Earlier in July the City of Bend’s application to Project Turnkey, a program that funds the purchase and renovation
“We know broadly in Oregon that a managed camp even a small one with 15-25 guests, will cost between $300-$350,000 a year to run, so at $1.5 million we felt like we could do maybe three locations with 15-25 people for a year and a half” —Carolyn Eagan “We know broadly in Oregon that a managed camp—even a small one with 15 to 25 guests, will cost between $300$350,000 a year to run, so at $1.5 million we felt like we could do maybe three locations with 15 to 25 people for a year and a half,” said Carolyn Eagan, recovery strategy and impact officer for the City of Bend, at the council work session. The City is in negotiations with Deschutes County to take on some of the costs while other solutions come to
of motels into shelters, was approved. The supplemental budget anticipates the costs for maintaining that facility, as well as acquiring another property through Project Turnkey. Both properties would be run by partner agencies, but the City would be responsible for utilities, rent and site maintenance. “We have funds that came in both for the acquisition and the renovation of the Bend Value Inn [through Turnkey] and additional ARPA funds that have come in or been
The Bend Value Inn will be converted into a shelter for unhoused people. The purchase and renovation was funded by Project Turnkey, a statewide program that has paid for the transformation of dozens of motels in Oregon.
allocated to the City of Bend for the acquisition of a second shelter. We’ll couple that with local ARPA funds, City of Bend ARPA funds so that we can do the renovation and other operations that may be required at both of those locations so we can get them up and running,” Eagan said. A middle housing pilot program will also be explored to promote different housing types to meet the demand across different incomes. It will be an expansion of the affordable housing program that promoted housing projects for people earning lower and middle incomes. “Thinking about our affordable housing program expanding into a housing program, both middle income housing, shelters, camps and other housing types we may not even know what are called yet, will all be part of that program,” Eagan said.
Other housing funding will go toward additional City staff who will be necessary to permit new housing projects at a faster pace. Another $5.6 million is being allocated for non-housing projects; $4.2 million is budgeted for the hiring of staff in both new positions and ones that were eliminated during COVID-19. An additional $1.2 million is being given to programs of “shared prosperity” that include utility assistance workforce development, childcare and community assistance for nonprofits. The smallest change is in transportation and infrastructure, which is being given a $200,000 budget increase for a north corridor pedestrian crossing near Robal Lane, and transportation maintenance.
Listen and Learn
Board members at Bend La-Pine Schools to meet with community members after hearing dissenting voices at its first meeting By Jack Harvel
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fter a return to in-person meetings, school board directors from BendLa Pine Schools will host listening sessions to meet with the community members in a less formal setting than a typical board meeting, where public comment must be directly related to an agenda item. The first will take place on Thursday, July 29 from 5:30-7:30 pm in the Silver Rail Elementary School gymnasium, and will be hosted by Board Chair Melissa Barnes Dholakia and ViceChair Marcus LeGrand. The first regular meeting was more contentious than what’s typical for a school board. Over 100 protestors attended to oppose the selective masking of non-vaccinated students, masking
students in general and the teaching of critical race theory. The audience was at times rambunctious, often applauding speakers who shared their beliefs and at one point demanding board members remove their masks. The board decided to continue fully masking students during summer school but the policy for the fall semester is still being determined. Local Republicans cried foul after the board’s first meeting, when most of the school board was pictured without masks at an outdoor party. “July 13 marked our return to in-person board meetings, following more than a year of virtual engagement,” Dholakia said in a statement. “The volume of interest by our stakeholders to
share their thoughts, concerns, and kudos—in person—is remarkable. It is our hope that this listening session, which includes a large venue, evening start and opportunity for conversation, will be convenient for potential participants and provide an environment for us to learn more from our parents, staff, students and community members.” Several board members echoed this sentiment at the board meeting, where they spoke about their willingness to hear criticism but stressed that arguments need to be formed in good faith and that both sides need to be willing to compromise. “We are all sitting here at this table to listen to voices that are in the room
and sometimes that can conflict with our own personal belief and our own personal identification of who we are, what our moral ground stands on,” Zone 7 board member Janet Sarai Llerandi Gonzalez said. “My advice to all of you folks who continue to show up in support of your passions is to come in with an open mind and come in with the spirit of engaging rather than telling so that we can have honest conversations and that we can discuss the actual issues at hand.” People can sign up to speak at the forum on the BLP Schools website. The listening sessions are intended to be a continuing program, though only the one is scheduled at this time.
