Cold adds peril to living unhoused in Bend

As dangerously cold weather gripped Bend this week, a man and his dog stayed warm by a portable propane heater. Their battered old travel trailer had no electricity and no running water. Even so, its thin walls were life-changing.

“I’ve been homeless 12 years,” said the man, who asked to go by his nickname, Critter.

A few years ago, the Central Oregon winter weather put Critter in the hospital with hypothermia for two days, he said. This year, a local aid group gave him the travel trailer, his first real shelter in more than a decade.

“It’s a little bit better,” he said. “The last 11 years I’ve been in a tent.”

Critter lives on Hunnell Road, where the number of houseless campers has swelled in recent years. Next to his trailer, a tent sagged under snow. Inside, someone coughed.

Central Oregon has a list of emergency shelters to help people experiencing homelessness get out of the cold. But many who were hunkered down on Hunnell Road’s frozen pavement Wednesday afternoon weren’t going anywhere. Homeless advocates say the reasons people might not want to go into shelters vary: from transportation barriers, to worries about losing belongings left behind, safety concerns, fears of crowded spaces, or anxiety about being separated from pets.