The Community Witness Project

The people no one is watching out for

It is election season. Homelessness is once again part of the public conversation: its visibility, its costs, its impact on neighborhoods, and the public money spent responding to it. Those questions matter. But there is another question that deserves equal attention: Have we asked the people living through these crises what they actually need?

Our answer begins with something deceptively simple. People need people. Not just a referral, a pamphlet, or a promise of a program, but someone who notices when they are missing, shows up when they are in trouble, asks questions, and follows through.

We do not believe caring requires an advanced degree. Some roles do require specialized qualifications, training, and professional boundaries. But the willingness to listen, show up, and treat someone as a human being should not be rare or inaccessible.

Justice should not depend on who is watching. We will be that witness.

Why we are building this

Some of us have experienced homelessness, incarceration, instability, or the justice system firsthand. We know how dangerous it can be to navigate complicated institutions without family, money, reliable transportation, a working phone, or an advocate who will answer when you call.

An arrest can interrupt employment, housing, treatment, childcare, and the care of a beloved animal. A missed deadline can become another legal problem. A person already struggling may be pushed into a deeper crisis simply because no one was available to help with a practical need at the right moment.

We are not claiming that every enforcement action is wrongful or that every crisis could be prevented. We are asking whether consistent, independent human support could help prevent some avoidable harm, and how we can test that possibility responsibly.

What we plan to do

Once the organization is established, it intends to:

1.Community advocacy and peer support

Recruit and train volunteers, including people with relevant lived experience, to offer practical, nonlegal support. Depending on permissions and program safeguards, this could include attending public hearings, helping people organize information and dates, connecting them to qualified services, checking in during difficult transitions, and following up when others cannot. We will develop clear boundaries: volunteers will not impersonate lawyers, provide legal advice without authorization, or promise access to restricted facilities.

2.Support for incarcerated people and people returning to the community

Explore approved ways to maintain contact with isolated incarcerated people, help coordinate practical needs, connect them with appropriate professionals, and assist with reentry planning. Any jail-based activity would depend on facility approval, participant consent, training, and safety rules.

3.Emergency pet-care connections

Develop partnerships with animal welfare groups, foster volunteers, and service providers to explore temporary care for pets when their owners are unexpectedly jailed or hospitalized. Our aim is safe, documented placement and reunification, with the owner's permission and clear responsibility for the animal's welfare.

4.Independent observation and public accountability

Attend public proceedings, seek public records, document reported concerns, and investigate patterns that may otherwise be overlooked. We will distinguish firsthand accounts, allegations, verified records, and our own analysis. Participants' privacy and safety will take priority over publicity.

5.Ask people what they need

Before assuming what will help, listen. Ask about obstacles to housing, court attendance, treatment, work, transportation, identification, communication, and family or pet care. Build services around what people actually report needing, in partnership with existing providers rather than duplicating their work.

A full two-year initiative: do the work, then measure it

The long-term goal is a 24-month pilot and evaluation. It would begin by establishing governance, partnerships, volunteer screening and training, consent and privacy practices, referral pathways, and a realistic operating budget. It would then provide and refine services while documenting what happens, and finally analyze results and publish a transparent report.

With informed consent, we hope to measure practical outcomes: whether participants maintain housing or employment, attend court, connect with services, preserve relationships with pets, and report feeling supported. We also want to examine whether sustained advocacy is associated with fewer avoidable crises and repeat interventions. Where comparisons are possible, we will account for other factors rather than assume advocacy alone caused an outcome.

We want to know what works, what does not, what it costs, and what other communities might learn. Success will not be defined by the number of people we photograph or the number of stories we publish. It will be defined by meaningful help, accountable methods, and evidence.

Follow the money. Document the outcomes.

Public budgets fund policing, courts, jails, crisis services, shelter, and recovery programs through different agencies and funding streams. We intend to study how those costs connect and whether some responses create additional burdens that could be avoided through earlier support. We will begin with publicly available records, including the City of Bend's adopted 2025–2027 budget, while distinguishing appropriations from actual expenditures and avoiding double-counting overlapping funds.

Our question is not simply how much homelessness costs. It is also what our communities spend when someone loses stability, what happens after an intervention, and whether a person-centered approach could improve outcomes.

Help us build the organization that can do this work

We're raising the foundation, not the entire building.

Our long-term goal is a 24-month research and advocacy program that combines lived-experience peer support, volunteer advocacy, emergency pet-care coordination, independent documentation, and investigation into the public costs of institutional failures. But before we can responsibly launch that initiative, we need to build the organization capable of supporting it.

That is what this fundraiser is for. We are seeking startup contributions to establish the nonprofit, develop its governance and operating structure, prepare its programs, and build the capacity to pursue grants and institutional funding.

We are not asking individual donors to finance the entire two-year initiative. We are asking the community to help us take the essential first steps toward creating an organization that can apply for the larger funding necessary to carry it out. Establishing the nonprofit will not guarantee grant awards, but it will help us develop the legal, administrative, and organizational foundation needed to pursue them.

Why startup funding matters

A good idea cannot apply for grants. A mission statement cannot manage public contributions. And a volunteer with a willingness to help cannot build a sustainable organization without resources.

We need to turn this vision into a properly organized, accountable, grant-ready institution. That is the purpose of this first fundraising campaign.

Help us build the foundation. So we can become the witness.

There is a cost to looking away

There is a cost to ignoring someone in crisis. There is a cost to repeatedly incarcerating someone who is asking for help. There is a cost to turning a person's trauma into evidence against them, and then using their resulting instability to justify further punishment.

That is the concern motivating our investigation, not a conclusion we ask donors to accept without evidence. We want to examine whether these patterns occur, what they mean for individuals, and what they cost the community.

My community was forced to finance both sides of a crisis: the government actions I believe caused much of the damage, and the public services needed to repair it.

The founder, from personal experience and interpretation.

The broader project will investigate public costs and institutional practices through records, interviews, and careful documentation, rather than treating any individual account as proof of a system-wide pattern.

Help us be the witness

We are not asking for money to manage people in crisis from a distance. We are asking for the resources to stand beside them, learn what they actually need, and measure what happens when somebody finally gives a damn.

Let's ask. Let's listen. Let's show up. Let's get our hands dirty. Let's find out what works.