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Bend HREC votes to forward amended letter urging state to maintain shelter funding (HB 3644)
Summary
The City of Bend Human Rights and Equity Commission voted to amend and forward a draft letter asking the City Council to advocate for continued state funding for shelter, rehousing and homeless intervention services under HB 3644. Commissioners cited the point-in-time count and expanded local shelter capacity as reasons to sustain the funding.
The City of Bend Human Rights and Equity Commission voted May 28 to amend and forward a letter asking the City Council to advocate for continued state funding for shelter, rehousing and homeless intervention services proposed in HB 3644.
Commissioner Jen Kovetz, who drafted the letter, told the commission the aim was to prevent “stranded assets” — shelter beds and programs built with state dollars that the city could not sustain if funding is reduced. Kovetz proposed adding local point-in-time count data and operating-cost figures to the draft before sending it to council for inclusion in the council’s advocacy to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. “When we expand services, we must have a plan to sustain these new offerings over time,” Kovetz said.
The commission’s discussion included data and capacity details from the equity department. Megan Perkins, City Council liaison, described recent council budget deliberations and said the city has used state dollars to expand shelter capacity; she noted council’s interest in protecting federal and state grants that support those operations. Equity Inclusion Director Andres Portela and other commissioners emphasized that recent increases in counted sheltered homelessness reflected both intensified outreach (including Juniper Ridge and China Hat) and the addition of shelter beds.
City Attorney Ian Lighthizer advised commissioners about the commission’s authority. He said advisory bodies like HREC lack direct authority to send testimony to the state legislature; the standard practice is for the commission to forward a recommendation to the City Council, which then may carry the advocacy to state lawmakers. “An ideal scenario would be HREC making a recommendation to council,” Lighthizer said.
After edits were proposed — including reframing the letter so HREC forwards the request to City Council, adding point-in-time count language, and clarifying the governor’s state-of-emergency reference — commissioners moved and seconded a motion to approve the amendments and forward the letter to Director Portela for transmission to council ahead of the council meeting next week. The motion passed on a voice vote; commissioners instructed staff and the letter’s author to finalize the data points and circulate the revision to HREC leadership before transmission.
The adopted action does not itself change city policy; it directs HREC staff and leadership to send an amended letter to City Council and ask council to include HREC’s request in the city’s advocacy on HB 3644.
The commission also encouraged commissioners to submit individual testimony if they wished. Members suggested adding specific shelter-bed counts and the dollar amount of annual operating costs to the letter before council transmits it to the legislature.
The HREC discussion and vote came during a broader roundtable in which staff and commissioners reviewed the recent point-in-time count, shelter capacity, and the limits of local control over housing development and funding.
The commission’s motion and the amended letter will be shared with City Council as HREC’s recommendation; any subsequent testimony filed with the legislature will be transmitted by council or by individual commissioners as private citizens.
