After we achieved the pause on June 8th, 2025, we continued working every single day to keep the momentum alive. We called the governor’s office constantly. We sent out proposals. We held meetings. We planned and coordinated. We stayed organized because we knew the pause wasn’t safety — it was only borrowed time.
During this period, Michael and I secured two storage units, and we got one for the community as well. We needed to safeguard the things we couldn’t afford to lose: shop tools, my quad, my son’s motorcycle, emergency supplies, my tamarak, the small amounts of my children’s belongings, my daughter’s memorial items that were part of the community center, my TV, and all the sentimental things that cannot be replaced. The shop’s contents alone represented years of work.
We had not been swept in 8 years. We were an established community with assumed permission. Many residents had “1000 Acres” listed as their Oregon ID address. We were not like the rest of Oregon’s displaced populations. We were different. We had achieved something no other homeless community had: stability, continuity, multi‑generational history, and a functioning community against all odds.
None of this mattered to the Department of State Lands. They knew what they were doing violated policy. They knew they would not have backup from The Hope Team or OSP. Those agencies wanted nothing to do with destroying what they had built with community members over the years. They knew displacement would cause more problems than it solved.
Finally, we got word that we had secured a meeting. The hope, stated by Jonna from the governor’s office — the resiliency officer — was that this would be the first of many. That date was August 19th, 2025.
As we were closing the evening meeting on August 19th, someone ran into the community center yelling “Fire!” We all jumped up, grabbed shovels, and ran. We did what we always do: made a fire line, shoveled dirt, hauled water from the river. We stayed until the fire was out. A few stayed behind to monitor for flare-ups.
Michael and I stayed behind. I left briefly to get a digital thermal thermometer so we could check temperatures and make sure nothing reignited. We planned to make dinner for everyone. When I got back, the fire had relit. We spent another 5 hours battling it to ensure no forest fire occurred. We handled it — like always — without Corbett Fire Department’s help.
The next day, we received a message: they wanted to move the meeting up from the newly set date of September 24th to the very next day. I was still writing the second proposal, adding infrastructure details, pulling more information and facts to align with what we hoped could be done.
All we were asking for was to be part of the cleanup. They could save money and be pioneers in the solution. Two new bills had been passed that aligned perfectly with what we were proposing. With another month, I felt confident I could have written a proposal that found a middle ground — a way for everyone to get what they needed and wanted.
We held them off until September 4th.