Strategic Plan Steps

Pendleton Strategic Plan Update 08.28.26

Pendleton Strategic Plan Update August 17, 2026

Pendleton Strategic Plan Update May 1, 2026

Building Hope: A Coordinated, Data-Driven Approach to Homelessness in Our Community

Editorial by Pendleton City Manager Robb Corbett Building Hope: A Coordinated, Data-Driven Approach to Homelessness in Our CommunityI have been reporting to you for several weeks now on our efforts to try and improve how we address homelessness in Pendleton. I now…

Dec.1, 2025

From the City Manger

On Nov. 18, 2025, the Pendleton City Council adopted a Strategic Plan for 2025-2028. This plan was based on community input and seeks to improve the City of Pendleton through strategic goal-setting and actions items designed to achieve these goals. Priority areas from the survey are: Houseless/unhoused population, Economic vitality, Public safety, and infrastructure.

Activities of staff on strategies for the week of November 17, 2025:

The highest priority of the strategic plan is to reduce the unsheltered population and to reduce the crimes associated with the City’s resting ordinance. To accomplish this, one item the City is created at what we call a Policy Task Force to meet with community service providers in the areas of mental health, addiction, and housing, to identify ways the City might be a better partner to improve success. During this period the Task Force:

Attended the Key Partners Meeting hosted by U-COPE (Umatilla County Community Outreach, Prevention and Education)

Attended several meetings led by County Commissioner Cindy Timmons that included local service partners with a shared goal of creating a day shelter in partnership with Neighbor to Neighbor

Another action item of the City Strategic Plan is to meet with the law enforcement community to discuss the problems with the jail and court systems that are overrun. To accomplish this action item the City has created a different task force we call the Accountability Task Force. This group has had several meetings with Umatilla County Jail personnel. During this period members of the Task Force toured the Umatilla County Jail at the invitation of the Sheriff’s Office.

Other activities during this time related to the highest priority action items are as follows:

Staff met and discussed work being done to develop a communications plan to keep the public better informed about the City’s progress on the strategic plan,

The Police Chief met with an advisory committee to the Urban Renewal District to advise them on ways to address public safety needs in the downtown, and

Staff reviewed 40% of plans for a McKay Creek project in Community Park to reduce the risk of flooding and to enhance fish habitat.

- Robb Corbett, City Manager

Frequently Asked Questions: Homelessness

The City of Pendleton recognizes that homelessness affects both unsheltered individuals and the broader community, and that these impacts can be frustrating, concerning, and complex.

In 2025, Pendleton City Council set homelessness/unhoused individuals as the top priority in the 2025-2028 Strategic Plan. You can follow what action steps have been taken as part of the Strategic Plan Steps page on this website.

Homelessness is a very complex problem, and Pendleton is one of many cities in the country struggling to find successful ways of addressing the problem. Many of the homeless people on the streets struggle with issues related to addiction, mental illness, and histories of trauma. Our community has dedicated staff across different service organizations that work every day to solve problems for the homeless, and the City staff engage regularly with those organizations to work toward solutions. Additionally, the City’s emergency services increasingly respond to requests for assistance to help people in crisis.

It can be difficult to track specific numbers of unhoused individuals, and this is an issue City staff is aware of. Although it does not track numbers by city, Umatilla County is part of an annual "Point in Time Count" of people who are unsheltered every other year, as directed by Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In the PIT count, unsheltered is defined as sleeping outdoors, in camps, on the street, in vehicles, or in abandoned buildings or sheds. The most recent count was done in January 2025, which identified 190 unhoused individuals in Umatilla County. In Umatilla, Morrow, Wheeler, and Gilliam counties, the Point in Time Count is coordinated by CAPECO. To learn more about the Point in Time Count, visit this website.

It is not illegal to be homeless, and the City cannot force someone to move due to constitutional protections and court rulings; however, Pendleton Police Department does have the authority to issue citations or arrest people who are engaged in criminal behavior. Prohibited or illegal behavior includes possession of an open container of alcohol or drinking in public, public urination or defecation, trespassing, and disorderly conduct. If you observe these or other illegal behaviors, please call the Pendleton Police non-emergency line at 541-276-4411. When you see criminal activity, please call 911.

The City of Pendleton does not have the training, capacity, or funding to operate a homeless shelter and instead works closely with organizations that provide services for homeless and unhoused individuals, as well as those in danger of homelessness, such as Neighbor 2 Neighbor and Salvation Army.

Homeless shelters operate in Hermiston and Walla Walla, and each of those shelters are operated by nonprofit organizations - Walla Walla Alliance for the Homeless, Stepping Stone Alliance and Martha's House. The City of Pendleton is open to communicating with nonprofits interested in opening a homeless shelter in Pendleton.

The City of Pendleton has not been able to find any evidence of homeless individuals being bussed into Pendleton, although this rumor has circulated for a number of years. One difficulty the City of Pendleton has is with individuals from other communities who are released from the Umatilla County Public Jail and do not have transportation back to their home communities. The City of Pendleton is actively working on a plan to soon offer transportation assistance for those individuals.

Homelessness is not illegal, and the City of Pendleton cannot ban people from public spaces simply for being homeless. The City can, however, enforce rules for safety of our community, and anyone who commits a crime may be restricted from public spaces.

The City of Pendleton is committed to working with community partners and organizations to lessen the impacts of homelessness. A list of steps being taken can be found on the Strategic Plan Steps section of this website.

You can take a proactive stance on keeping trespassers off your property by posting signs and maintaining your property perimeter. If an illegal encampment appears on your property, you have the right to ask the individuals to leave or contact the Pendleton Police non-emergency number for assistance 541-276-4411.

Information about food, shelter, and support services is available on the resources page of this website.

The City appreciates public reporting of illegal camping. Please call Pendleton Police Department non-emergency number at 541-276-4411.

By providing an accurate location and description of the camp, you will assist the responding officers in locating and contacting the occupants of the camp. What happens to an identified camp depends on many factors. The responding officers will work closely with the many resources available to determine the best course of action to take regarding the removal of the camp.

Temporary camping is allowed by state law and under the City of Pendleton's Right to Rest ordinance. Visit this webpage for more information about that ordinance, including Right to Rest locations.

In a decision by the courts nearly 10 years ago, it was determined that it was considered cruel and unusual punishment to prohibit sleeping on public property when the person had no realistic indoor shelter option, or that person was homeless. At that time, the City of Pendleton assessed the potential of having a single location where homeless people would be able to camp, or open up City owned properties around the community for camping. Having a single location was discouraged by our insurance providers because of the liability risk. Also, it was recognized that having a single location required the City to assume significant costs. Providing a single location for camping would required the public to provide for public health and sanitation and on-site security the City does not have funds for. Lastly, it would be hard to find a location that would be acceptable, without locating it in a remote location which would also require the added cost of transportation.

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Built for Zero

Pendleton Built for Zero: A local commitment to reduce homelessness through collaboration and data
Built for Zero is not a program the City of Pendleton is purchasing. It is a community-improvement approach that helps local partners work together, use timely data, and pursue a shared goal: making homelessness rare, brief, and nonrecurring.

Community Solutions, the nonprofit that leads the national Built for Zero network, supports communities with coaching, peer learning, data expertise, and proven tools. In the past the initiative provided funding and flexible support to participating communities. It is not currently accepting or funding new cities. Instead they have created a DIY guide for cities to implement Built for Zero on their own using the open source tools provided by Community Solutions. It is not structured as cities paying Community Solutions for software, staffing, or a contracted service.

Our commitment is local. Pendleton’s commitment is to ourselves and our community, not an outside organization. We will assemble a system’s improvement group of organizations that regularly interact with people experiencing homelessness. Those organizations will agree to coordinate their efforts around a shared aim: reducing homelessness in Pendleton.

Built for Zero’s model centers on a single, accountable community team; a shared aim; person-specific, real-time data; and targeted, data-driven action.

Why data matters

Our initial focus is data collection and data quality. Before we can effectively reduce homelessness, we need a more complete and current understanding of:

Who is experiencing homelessness in Pendleton.
How people both enter and exit homelessness in Pendleton each month.
What barriers are keeping people from housing.

Partners will work toward a shared, consent-based by-name list: a regularly updated, person-specific list that helps the community account for each person experiencing homelessness, avoid duplicate counting, coordinate appropriate support, and understand system-wide trends.
Once the system is established, designated staff will pull recurring monthly reports, update the public dashboard with aggregated information, and use the data to guide decisions about homelessness prevention, service coordination, and housing placement.

Transparency and local ownership

The City of Pendleton should lead the creation of a public-facing dashboard that reports community-level progress transparently.
The dashboard would share aggregated information such as:

Number of people experiencing homelessness over time.
Inflow: people newly entering homelessness.
Outflow: people leaving homelessness, including exits to housing when known.
Trends that can inform prevention strategies, service coordination, and housing investments.

A local dashboard would allow Pendleton residents, partners, and decision-makers to see both the challenge and our collective progress.

What Pendleton can do now

Pendleton does not need to begin with a large, fully developed operation. As a smaller community, we can start with a practical systems-improvement group that:

Brings key organizations to one table.
Establishes a shared local aim.
Builds a reliable by-name list and improves data-sharing processes.
Identifies gaps, bottlenecks, and prevention opportunities.
Tests targeted improvements and measures their results.
Reports progress publicly through a City-led dashboard.

With the FREE support from peer communities, Community Solutions’ policy and data staff, Built for Zero managers, and access to Built for Zero resources and tools, Pendleton can build a local system that learns continuously and makes better decisions with data. The goal is straightforward: work together so fewer neighbors experience homelessness, and those who do can return to housing more quickly.