NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Faces of Homelessness
Who are the real people impacted by skyrocketing housing prices, decisions about homeless shelters
or plans to sweep informal camps? The Bulletin wants to oﬀ er insight by telling their stories through the
series Faces of Homelessness. Every two weeks this year, Bulletin reporters will introduce readers to a
diﬀ erent homeless person. We are here to tell their stories.
‘Fishbowl’ oﬀ ers sense of safety
By ZACK DEMARS
The Bulletin
BEND — For Rejena Wenciker,
the “Fishbowl” at Juniper Ridge oﬀ ers
a sense of relative safety.
It’s a little pocket of camps in part
of Dirt World, the unoﬃ cial name for
1,500 acres of publicly owned juni-
per forest on Bend’s northeast edge
known oﬃ cially as Juniper Ridge.
The Fishbowl is exactly what it
sounds like. One of the area’s informal
roads dips down into the small bowl-
shaped clearing, which is surrounded
on three sides by rocky hillsides that
oﬀ er a bit of seclusion. Around a half-
dozen trailers and campers are arranged
like a cul-de-sac, most with makeshift
fences built around them to either keep
dogs in or keep strangers out.
“It’s like living regular, but with a
little more struggle,” said Wenciker,
44.
Wenciker’s been living here for
about a year, and has been homeless
since she got kicked out of a family
member’s home in Myrtle Creek three
years ago. Currently, she shares the
trailer with her two daughters, ages 19
and 21, and her 2-year-old grandson.
Her grandson bounced on a small
trampoline outside the family’s trailer
as the Shepherd’s House outreach van
delivered basic supplies to the family
late last month. He’s been living there
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Rejena Wenciker, 44, left, her daughter, Katie Borden, 19, and grandson Mason, 2, at their camp in “Dirt World,”
north of Bend.
since Wenciker’s son got into a bad
car accident and couldn’t take care
of him. The toddler is a big part of
the reason Wenciker hopes to get
somewhere more stable.
“I’m hoping to be in a house, to
have a job and do the normal life,”
Wenciker said. “Because I want my
grandkid out of here.”
When she ﬁ rst became home-
less, Wenciker didn’t know how to
survive. But when she reconnected
with a friend who was also expe-
riencing homelessness, she began
ﬁ guring out how to make it without
a stable place to live.
“I didn’t know anything about
being homeless,” Wenciker said.
“She helped me out.”
She spent some time homeless in
Pendleton, but decided to come back
to Bend because she’d lived here
before. She lived in an RV oﬀ Hun-
nell Road for two years, and told a
Bulletin reporter in March 2021
about the diﬃ culty of basic tasks
while living outdoors.
It’s hard to say if Wenciker is in a
better place than she was at that time,
but she says she feels safe in the Fish-
bowl and hopeful for the future.
“I’m still standing here and I’m
still smiling,” Wenciker said. “The
only thing that got me through (a
hard year) is knowing that my higher
power has me.”
She’s hoping to get a job, but
that’s been hard to accomplish since
her car broke down earlier this year.
She doesn’t want to get a job but not
be able to show up for it reliably, she
said. A bike donated by a local non-
proﬁ t and delivered by the outreach
workers might make it a bit easier to
get into town, she said.
The network of nonproﬁ ts in the
area give her hope that she might be
able to get somewhere more stable,
Wenciker said. She’s on waitlists to
get into housing through a few of
them, and she says her primary goal
is to get her children and grandchild
into a safer place.
“This is not where I want my kids
to live,” she said, gesturing to the
dusty basin around her.
The juniper forest poses unique
challenges, according to Colleen
Thomas, Deschutes County’s home-
less outreach supervisor. As with any-
one living outside, people on Juniper
Ridge are uniquely exposed to poor
air quality and extreme tempera-
tures, and the property’s location
makes water much less accessible.
An array of nonproﬁ ts collaborate on
bringing water, trash bags and other
supplies to those living there.
“One of the concerns I always
have with Juniper Ridge is the ter-
rain,” Thomas said “The dirt that’s out
there, in the middle of summer when
it’s hot and dusty, makes it really hard
to maneuver any vehicle out there.”
For Wenciker, the kids are what
keep her optimistic despite those
challenges, she said.
“That’s what I want them to see, is
that they can handle anything, because
they know what mom’s been through
and they can do it,” Wenciker said.
More than 200 unhoused people living at Juniper Ridge
By ZACK DEMARS
The Bulletin
BEND — Dirt World used to be
relatively quiet when Krista Bahr ﬁ rst
started living there with her boyfriend
around six years ago.
Along with a handful of other
camps further south on the property
— a dusty, undeveloped 1,500 acres in
northeast Bend, owned in large part by
the city, and known in oﬃ cial parlance
as Juniper Ridge — their site was one
of the few.
“When we came out here, there
was nobody around here,” Bahr, 42,
said. “If you ran into somebody, it was
because they were lost.”
Bahr, who’s lived in Central Ore-
gon since age 15, had been living for
about a year at the hotel she worked at,
but ended up back at Dirt World this
summer after she lost the job.
“I just happened to lose my job
(and) my vehicle with everything I
owned in it all in one day,” she recalled.
Her return to Juniper Ridge
brought her to an area that was much
diﬀ erent than it had been the ﬁ rst
time. Now, a maze of bumpy, unoﬃ -
cial roads weaves across the property
between junipers, campers, tents, trail-
ers with makeshift fences and built-up
structures resembling ad-hoc houses.
Between 200 and 250 people now
HOW TO HELP
For suggestions on how to help
the region’s residents experienc-
ing homelessness, contact the
Homeless Leadership Coalition by
email at info@cohomeless.org.
Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
Krista Bahr, 42, inside of her makeshift structure in “Dirt World” north of Bend.
live in the juniper-dotted forest, a
patchwork of city, county and federal
lands, according to Colleen Thomas,
Deschutes County’s homeless out-
reach supervisor. That’s grown in the
last several years — city oﬃ cials esti-
mated that between 150 and 200 lived
on the property in 2020.
The population there decreased as
the city completed a sewer project on
the property’s south end in 2020, but
began increasing again as the Oregon
Department of Transportation cleared
camps from its properties and people
living on Hunnell Road received neg-
ative attention, Thomas said.
“We have deﬁ nitely seen it
increase over the past six months,
plus,” Thomas said. “At least amongst
the junipers they have a little more
privacy.”
Bahr has noticed the growth.
“It’s been crazy. It’s deﬁ nitely dif-
ferent from there not being anybody
out here,” Bahr said. “There’s a lot
more problems.”
Despite those problems, Bahr typ-
ically feels safe at Dirt World. Her
camp is in a relatively secluded part of
the property and includes some of the
things one could need: Various materi-
als make up the sturdy walls of her liv-
ing structure, which has insulation, a
camping stove on a table, a few pieces
of furniture and a wood stove.
Bahr’s boyfriend, who works as a
painter in town during the day, built
much of the structure. The newest
additions include a makeshift shower
outside the front door, and Titan, the
couple’s 3-month-old pit bull and bull
mastiﬀ mix.
Still, life in the woods isn’t easy,
Bahr said.
“It’s awful living out here and mak-
ing it the best that you can, living as
best as you can,” Bahr said.
Wildﬁ re is a constant concern, too.
Bahr described the sound of popping
propane tanks from a motor home that
was burned on Sept. 24. The Deschutes
County Sheriﬀ ’s Oﬃ ce conﬁ rmed that
a 40-foot motorhome had been set on
ﬁ re that day and was considered a total
loss, and that a 39-year-old man was
arrested on arson charges.
She also recalls evacuating the area
when the 2020 Juniper Ridge ﬁ re tore
through 39 acres nearby. As it came
close to her structure, she loaded her
cats in their carriers and hurried to the
highway, waiting hours before she
could return to her camp to ﬁ nd that
her belongings had been spared.
“That was scary, really scary,”
Bahr said.
After that ﬁ re, city oﬃ cials told The
Bulletin they were keeping a detailed
map of where individuals were living
throughout the property and develop-
ing an emergency management plan
for the area. Much of that work is now
done by the Sheriﬀ ’s Oﬃ ce, accord-
ing to Shelley Smith, a city manage-
ment analyst. The city coordinates
with a handful of local nonproﬁ ts that
connect directly with residents, as
well as county and federal agencies to
do wildﬁ re prevention projects in the
area, Smith said.
“What we’re facing right now as
a region with houselessness, lack of
housing and shelter, we’re trying to
balance the needs of humans that we
see out there with what our responsi-
bility as a city is about managing pub-
lic lands,” Smith said, noting that the
city doesn’t have imminent construc-
tion plans on much of its portions of
the property.
Transportation out of Dirt World is
Bahr’s current challenge. She hasn’t
gotten a job since her car broke down,
but she’s hoping a donated bike will
make it easier to get to a new one.
“This bike’ll help out quite a lot,”
she said after chiding Titan for teeth-
ing on the new bike’s tires.
BURNT RIVER SCHOOL DISTRICT
HAS THE FOLLOWING
POSITION OPEN
Boys Basketball Coach
Start Day: November 14, 2022
Applicants must pass a criminal history and
fingerprint check and must also obtain certification
through the NFHS Coaches Education Program.
Additional required training: Anabolic Steroids & Performance Enhancing
Substances, Complete Concussion Management Course, Heat Acclimatization,
and Current First Aid Card
Application Process: • Cover Letter • Burnt River School District Application
• Three Letters of Recommendation
(Application available at www.burntriver.k12.or.us)
Position Will Remain Open Until Filled For questions please call 541-446-3466
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