Image by Levi Meir Clancy.
I’m a native Oregonian. The central part of the state has been my home for more than a quarter century. It’s where I expected to build my life.
It’s also where I fled after a harrowing marriage with a husband who threatened my life. With no money, no job, and no housing, I found safety and sanctuary deep in the woods of the Deschutes National Forest. That is where I lived for seven years.
But this spring, the Forest Service forced nearly 200 people, including me, from an area called China Hat, located just south of Bend, Oregon. This place, our home, was a last resort when systems failed us.
What we experienced was a mass displacement of people with nowhere else to go—and a harsh foreshadowing of what’s to come for others as cities and other entities fine, arrest, and jail people without providing any other safe place for them to live. Since the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass v. Johnson decision greenlit those cruel policies a year ago, they have been on the rise across the country.
None of us living in the woods were there because that is where we most wanted to be. Many of us have long histories of contributing to our communities. We worked. We paid taxes. Each of us has a story of hardship to tell.
I was a bar manager and a former volunteer firefighter before I fled from my husband after his second attempt on my life seven years ago. Despite a court order against contacting me, he’d show up at family and friends’ homes, leaving messages that escalated to threats. I couldn’t bear the thought of him hurting my family, who sheltered me. And so I ended up in the woods.
There aren’t enough shelter beds in Bend for all the people who need them, and even “affordable housing” is a cruel joke for someone starting over with nothing. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Bend is nearly $1,700; the average home price is well over $700,000.