To the city of Bend and Deschutes county: 

We the undersigned residents are gripped by the COVID-19 crisis, with jobs sending people home, sick time-limited or non-existent and no plan for what the future brings.

Bend and the surrounding areas are faced with an extreme crisis - what has been labeled a state of emergency.  We believe it is our common good to create an area-wide rent freeze now, not later, not next month, but now. 

Without work, without sick days, many of us will not be able to afford our rents and mortgages come April 1st.  We will not have this money at some later date. We are hard-working people who barely have enough to pay one month’s rent at a time.

We demand therefore that all Bend and Deschutes county area rents and mortgages be frozen immediately until the COVID-19 crisis passes until there are tests that show this is no longer a threat posed to all of our communities. 

Please see these links for local information

Deschutes County Health Services for countywide updates: www.deschutes.org/covid19
Oregon Health Authority for statewide updates: www.healthoregon.org/coronavirus
Centers for Disease Control for U.S. updates: www.cdc.gov/covid19
Central Oregon Emergency Information Network (COEIN) for local updates: http://coemergencyinfo.blogspot.com/
Community members can call 2-1-1 for general information and questions about COVID-19.