MEDFORD, Ore -- The temporary homeless campground is almost ready to open.
It officially opens on July 27th and will close on September 30th. The campground is next to the Bear Creek Greenway off of Biddle Road in Medford. The area is still getting put together. It doesn't look like much right now, but it can be a new beginning for a lot of people.
"So we are all working together and this is going to give us an opportunity to do that in a concentrated organized manner." said Jason Bull. He is the Executive Director of the Medford Gospel Mission. "I think this is great, because I really believe in the case management model." said Chief Scott Clauson with the Medford Police Department.
The campground will offer people a place to sleep and will be a starting point for other help. "It's getting them to engage in the services. One of those services is getting them to sign an application to get into the shelter or the gospel mission." said Chad McComas with Rogue Retreat. Other services at the campground include On Track, Addictions Recovery Center and La Clinica.
"I like to see people get plugged into services and not just be left out to do their own thing. When that happens, they're in a sense unsupervised. They don't necessarily have resources and so they turn to alternative methods." said Chief Clauson.
"In the past, we have waited for those individuals to come to the mission itself. This is giving us an opportunity to safely come to a group of individuals that are looking to get out of homelessness." said Bull.
McComas says depending on how these next two months go will determine what happens next with this campground.
