BAKER CITY — Jeffrey MacLeod doesn’t want to resume raising his 12-year-old daughter, Kadyn, in a four-door SUV.

Debora Parlin already lives in her vehicle, a decrepit 1988 Chevrolet van, and she hopes to swap it for an actual home.

Mark Misiura, whose south Baker City home was destroyed by a fire in late January, has no idea where he’ll go when his motel vouchers run out.

Those three were among the 18 local residents who attended a homeless resource fair on the afternoon of Jan. 29 at Community Connection of Baker County and took part in the annual Point-in-Time count, a census of people who lack a permanent home.

Thirteen filled out a survey and were officially counted, topping the totals of 11 in 2024 and six in 2023.

But the biggest change this year happened outside, not inside.

Five two-person teams from New Directions Northwest of Baker City, which offers mental health services and addiction treatment locally, toured Baker City as well as Haines, Richland/Halfway, and Huntington/Durkee.

A total of 51 people filled out a survey, said Andi Walsh, grants and public relations manager for New Directions, bringing the county’s total to 64.

This is the first year the homeless count has included traveling teams.

Most of the people who completed a survey — 47 — are living in Baker City.

New Directions teams also talked with two people in Haines, and one each in Halfway and Durkee.

Mike Dunn of New Directions, who served as team leader for the group that canvassed Baker City on Jan. 29, said New Directions employees already know many local residents who are defined as houseless because they lack permanent housing.

These are New Directions clients, he said, who rely on the organization for mental health or substance abuse counseling, and in some cases for both.

“We know a lot of these people,” Dunn said.

The four New Directions employees who focused on Baker City started with a list of names and locations, including motels and homes, Dunn said.

The Jan. 29 event had a dual purpose.

In addition to giving local officials an estimate of the homeless population, the noon-to-4 p.m. resource fair at Community Connection brought representatives from several agencies to help people fill out housing assistance applications, learn about other social services (including for veterans), enroll in the Oregon Health Plan, or just pick up a warm stocking cap or a couple bags of chips and a bottle of water.

Living in a car

MacLeod, 61, lived in Baker City from 2009-13. He has two daughters — Kadyn, 12, and Dianna, 16.

He said the girls’ mother is not involved in their lives.

MacLeod said he moved to San Diego, where he had previously lived, in 2013. He left to care for a longtime friend who was ill.

For about 11 years he and his daughters lived in his friend’s home.

MacLeod said his sole source of income is disability payments through Social Security. He also receives cash payments from California to support his daughters.

After his friend died on March 10, 2024, MacLeod said the home’s new owner allowed him to stay, with his daughters, through the end of the school year in May.

But then the trio had to move into a 2017 Mitsubishi Mirage, a compact car.

“Not that big for three people,” MacLeod said.

He and his daughters stayed in San Diego through the summer and fall.

Then a friend from Baker City called and offered to let them stay in a home here.

MacLeod and Kadyn drove to Baker City, in their newer, slightly larger Volkswagen Tiguan, arriving on Dec. 5. Dianna stayed with a friend in San Diego, where she has started high school and has a group of friends she didn’t want to leave.

MacLeod learned recently he has to move out of the home where he and Kadyn have been living.

He shudders at the prospect of moving with his daughter, a seventh grader who has joined the wrestling team at Baker Middle School, back into a car.

“I love my daughters more than anything,” MacLeod said.

He’s optimistic the housing aid application he filled out during the resource fair will lead to long-term housing.

MacLeod said he definitely can’t afford rent payments with only his disability benefits for income.

The aftermath of a fire

Misiura didn’t think he would be attending a resource fair for homeless people.

He has owned his home, a 1973 single-wide trailer at 2246 Miller Ave., for about 19 years.

Misiura, 63, is a retired construction worker who relies on Social Security disability checks.

“I worked hard my whole life,” he said.

He retired about a year ago. About three months ago he was diagnosed with cancer.

Then, on the evening of Jan. 23, his trailer caught fire.

Misiura was left, he said, with literally nothing but the clothes he was wearing.

He said it was difficult to find insurance for the half-century-old trailer, and he couldn’t afford the available policies anyway.

During the resource fair he picked out a few pairs of underwear and stuffed them into his backpack.

Misiura said he hopes to find a friend who has an RV or camper he can live in until he finds permanent housing.

He’s been living in a motel since the fire.

Angry about housing scams

Debora Parlin grew up in Baker City. She had been living in North Powder, using a federal housing subsidy, when she said she was “screwed” by the homeowner and left homeless.

That was in early February 2024, about a year ago.

Parlin, 62, said she has spent most of the past year living in her 1988 Chevrolet van, often parking it in Haines.

The vehicle’s heater doesn’t work, she said.

Parlin, who said she earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Eastern Oregon University when she was 50, said she has struggled to find a job at which she can use her education.

She said she worked hard before being physically disabled in 2018. The disability checks aren’t sufficient to pay for long-term housing.

Parlin said she’s also been frustrated by the prevalence of housing “scams” on Facebook Marketplace, where people claim to own rental homes but instead take unwitting people’s deposits.

Parlin said Community Connection has helped her by providing motel vouchers since Christmas.

But she fears that if the application she filled out Jan. 29 doesn’t secure housing for her, she’ll be forced to return to her unheated van, living there with her two dogs.

“I don’t want to give up,” Parlin said, tears dripping down her cheeks. “But it’s hard not to give up. I used to be somebody.”

“I don’t want to give up. But it’s hard not to give up. I used to be somebody.”

— Debora Parlin, who lives in her 1988 Chevrolet van in Baker City