Bonnie Jenkins and her son, Richard Ostland, along with their two dogs and a cat, have been mainstays at the Bend Emergency Shelter run by the Shepherd’s House Ministries since January.

They are navigating the turbulent waters of being homeless for the first time in their lives.

“This is all new for us,” said Jenkins, 65. “Be thankful for what you do (have) and don’t take anything for granted.”

For nearly 30 years, Jenkins and Ostland rented the same house in Prineville, it was stable living. But when Jenkins’ husband, Donald, passed away due to throat cancer last November, the once cordial relationship with their landlord took a turn for the worse.

Jenkins recalls multiple conversations about buying the two and a half acre property in Prineville, but the deal fell through each time. The rent the Jenkins were paying went from $700 to $850, but is now being rented for more than $2,500 a month after some renovations, Jenkins said.

“He was nice until my husband passed away,” Jenkins said. “Then it got really hairy for a while. It was horrible the last year that we lived there.”

By December, shortly after her husband’s passing, they were out of the house they called home for decades and started living in their 2004 Chevy Trailblazer and uncertain of what was coming next. For a family who rarely had to worry about money, suddenly not having anything was an eye-opener.

“It isn’t fun being homeless,” said Ostland, 43. “There are a bunch of twists and turns and people look at you a lot differently.”

Meanwhile, Jenkins, who uses an oxygen machine to help with her breathing, became sick with pneumonia and was having to take multiple trips to the hospital.

“We burned through a lot of gas,” Jenkins said. “We got snowed on for three days straight. If I hadn’t forced us to get up and move, we would have gone to sleep and never woke up. That is how frozen we were. My brain was so frozen I couldn’t think, I couldn’t do anything.

“It was very, very scary,” Jenkins continued. “I had no idea what I was doing. When you come down to nothing, it is very humbling.”

In the start of a new year, Jenkins and Ostland found Shepherd’s House Ministries, a nonprofit serving Central Oregon that serves the homeless community with an emergency shelter, food and supplies.

According to its website, the Shepherd’s House Ministries exists to “love people well by creating environments of grace where people are completely accepted for who they are and given the opportunity to embrace significant life change at a pace that is in their own best interest.”

In the Bend Emergency Shelter, Jenkins and Ostland have a small section with a pair of cots and enough room for some personal belongings. But the space, limited as it may be, was a blessing.

“They brought us in out of the weather, gave us a warm bed with blankets, allowed our animals to come in,” Jenkins said. “They went out of their way to help us out as much as they could. It is a family situation here; everyone gets along with everybody.”

And the Shepherd’s House Ministries has helped Jenkins and Ostland get back on their feet, and soon they will be back in their own place once again.

Through EPIC Property Management, they were able to get near the top of the waiting list for affordable housing built by Housing Works, which provides new beginnings for low-and moderate-income Central Oregonians.

Now, they are just waiting for the housing to be finished being built. By the end of July, they should be back living on their own.

“You get your privacy back, our own rooms,” Jenkins said. “They did not have to do this for the homeless, but they did.”

Who are the real people impacted by skyrocketing housing prices, decisions about homeless shelters or plans to sweep informal camps? The Bulletin wants to offer insight by telling their stories through the series Faces of Homelessness. Every two weeks this year, Bulletin reporters will introduce readers to a different homeless person. We are here to tell their stories.

For suggestions on how to help the region’s residents experiencing homelessness, contact the Homeless Leadership Coalition by email at info@cohomeless.org.