BEND, OR – A wooded area in Deschutes County, Oregon – nicknamed “Dirt World” by locals – that has been overrun with homeless encampments is currently undergoing thorough cleanup efforts to remove waste and trash while officials are also undertaking measures to reduce fire risks after the area previously experienced several destructive blazes.
The work is to make the area – located in Juniper Ridge, north of the city of Bend – safer for the undomiciled squatters, and when the cleanup and fire mitigation efforts are complete, the homeless will be compelled to move off of the city-owned land and to a smaller “Safe Stay Area” owned by the county, according to Deschutes County Deputy Administrator Erick Kropp.
The city owns property east of the railroad tracks and the city is issuing 60-day notices so that the people east of the tracks will have to relocate,” Kropp said. “Most of them will probably relocate to city and county-owned land to west of the railroad track. Hopefully some of them will go into shelter or housing but we can’t guarantee that.”
The cleanup of the homeless encampment is vitally important due to the fact that fire season in Oregon is fast coming. The area had previously endured several significant blazes; the most recent was in August 2024, when the infamous Mile Marker 132 Fire was started by squatters who had lit a cooking fire that quickly grew out of control and engulfed the area, coming dangerously close to reaching multiple homes along Highway 97.
That being said, the services of skillful and knowledgeable cleanup crews are extremely important, as the dense woods – combined with flammable waste and garbage left behind by the squatters, in addition to numerous abandoned motor vehicles which contractors are currently hauling away – can make for a very combustible situation.
I don’t think it’s been determined how many are here. We are here to make them all disappear,” said Josh Smith, North Valley Scrap and Salvage. “15 vehicles pulled out the past two days. We’ll go through, mark some more and keep moving them out.”
In addition to the cleanup of the site, contractors are also thinning the number of trees to reduce their closeness to each other to further reduce fire risk; also, hundreds of barricades are being installed to prevent the homeless camping at Juniper Ridge from driving over and potentially damaging an underground irrigation pipe in the area.
To improve the sanitation of the site, porta-potties have been installed for the homeless to use, and drinking water is being made available; security guards also are now patrolling the area regularly.
Once the cleanup is complete and the campers moved to county-owned land, case workers will interact with the homeless in an attempt to convince them to transition to shelters or permanent housing, in addition to helping to improve the health and safety in the camp for those to refuse to go, Kropp said.
Homelessness is one of the more difficult issues I’ve faced in my 30-year career in local government. It often gets political. People disagree. It’s a serious issue,” he said. “What I’ve learned is rather than waiting until the entire problem is solved, which will be years if not decades, we have to figure out what we can do today to help the situation.”
