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Michael Dunne: I'm Michael Dunne. Most of us have had to answer this question multiple times in our lives: What do you like better, dogs or cats? But what if, especially during a brutally hot day or a stunningly cold one, you had to answer this question: What do you want, a roof over your head or your beloved dog or cat? Unfortunately, many people in Central Oregon have to answer that question in one way or another. But their choice either means abandoning their pet or spending another night out in the elements. In our continuing series this week about local nonprofits, we'll bring you the story of a small but mighty nonprofit that works tirelessly to help those living unhoused in Central Oregon both hold onto and help keep their beloved pets. The story of Companion Animal Medical Project, or CAMP, is next on Oregon on the Record.
Dunne: Johannah Johnson-Weinberg, the founder and executive director of Companion Animal Medical Project, or CAMP. Johannah, thanks so much for coming on and talking with us.
Johannah Johnson-Weinberg: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be talking with you.
Dunne: Yeah, yeah. So, tell our audience: What is CAMP, and what do you do?
Johnson-Weinberg: Yes, CAMP is a nonprofit here in Central Oregon, and we provide veterinary care and other pet retention services for pet owners experiencing or at risk of homelessness throughout the tri-county area.
Dunne: Okay, so you're the founder of this organization. I want you to take us through what led you to begin this program. Looking around in Central Oregon, what was the need like, and how did you try to fill it?
Johnson-Weinberg: Yes, there was a moment, and that moment kind of happened, let's see, six years ago, or maybe even a little bit before that, because I worked at our local humane society probably seven or eight years ago, and CAMP has been around for six years. But the original thought, I guess, was: While I was working at the local humane society, I worked back in intake. So every day I met and talked with pet owners who were having to make the incredibly difficult decision to surrender their animals due to various things: veterinary care, housing, things that were kind of out of their control. And to me, it didn't really make sense that, specifically for veterinary care, just because a family couldn't afford their animal, they would have to surrender it. That animal would then get the care it needed, and then be put up for adoption and adopted out to a new family. So that never really made a whole lot of sense to me. And then, you know, housing is a hot topic, but there were a lot of housing issues too, where people couldn't keep their animals. So that idea kind of came a little farther down the line.
But I left the Humane Society and worked at some other places throughout town, and then went to work for a local pet food store. I was sitting in that interview and said, “Yes, I would like to take this job, and can I do a passion project?” And that passion project was doing some type of free veterinary care for our community.
We held our first free vaccine clinic in February 2020, at Bend Methodist Church here in Bend, and we saw around 30 animals owned by folks who were experiencing homelessness. At that time, I kind of just had this moment of: How do folks who are living unhoused get access to veterinary care? And the answer was there wasn't a resource. So CAMP came to be.
Dunne: Boy, and since that time, talk about the growth. How many customers, clients, people do you help each month or so?
Johnson-Weinberg: Yeah, I mean, it's grown exponentially. We first started here, kind of like a little pilot project in Bend, and then we moved to Redmond. And now, like I previously mentioned, we are tri-county, so we serve all of Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties. We hold three to five what we call CAMP clinics every month, and those are more of our full-service wellness and veterinary care clinics. We have outreach, and we have ready-together appointments, which I can talk about more in depth as well. So, on average, we probably see 200 to 300 people each month, and more or less the same number of animals, annually over 2,000. We're the only resource like this that exists here in Central Oregon. So we are busy.
Dunne: I bet you are. Talk about, I mean, obviously, to make these programs work, you need veterinarians. Talk about how you're able to gather up local vets to provide this kind of service, because obviously I imagine they're incredibly busy with their own practice. How does it all kind of come together?
Johnson-Weinberg: Oh, another great question. Yes. Well, we do have four people on staff, none of whom are veterinarians, so we rely on veterinary teams and licensed veterinarians to donate their time. We are just so fortunate. We have such a wonderful community of vet clinics and vet teams who, I think, generally see the value in the services that we're providing, and it gets them outside of their private practice and the mandated things they have to do, and gets the care right into the community.
I think the value for them is seeing their work firsthand, and people are just so incredibly grateful. So the reward is seeing people and pets so grateful that a licensed vet is out in an unhoused camp, and they're there to make sure their animals are cared for and have what they need. I think just the vets seeing that, and being in that experience, makes them want to come back and donate their time, and we are grateful for that.
And, kind of in the beginning, my pitch to these vet clinics was that they either had to turn these patients away because pet owners could not pay, or they would see the patients, the pets, and lose money. So to fill that void, we stepped in to be the financial assistance. The animal gets care, the people get their animal cared for, but the vets don't completely lose out on money. That's kind of where our financial assistance comes into play for a lot of those more urgent and emergency cases. So that was kind of how I got them on board, and then I think the rest is: They saw the importance and the value, and they keep coming back. Bless them.
Dunne: If you're just joining us, we're talking with Johannah Johnson-Weinberg, who is the founder and executive director of Companion Animal Medical Project, or CAMP. Let's talk about those specific programs. Talk about all the different services your organization offers.
Johnson-Weinberg: Okay, yeah. So we kind of break it down into a couple different categories. Our main service would be what we call our CAMP clinics, and we take a mobile veterinary van that we have outfitted to the different communities we serve. So, again, Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties, and we post up at places that are accessible, trying to remove as many barriers as we can for folks. So that might look like directly in a camp, out in BLM land, in an unsanctioned area, at a pet food store, at a community health center, a food kitchen or something like that, and we bring the care straight to the people. At our CAMP clinics, we do basic wellness and vaccines. We pass out pet food and supplies. We can see minor ailments like skin infections, bite wounds, eyes, ears, things like that. So that's our primary service, I would say. That's kind of what we started off with, just to get accessible veterinary care into the community.
Then we transitioned into being a trusted homeless service provider. So with that, we went more into outreach in some areas, more targeted outreach to folks, again where transportation would be a barrier. So we go into camps and just connect and have conversations with pet owners: What do you need? How can we help? And we track those resources. A lot of people want spay and neuter services. They just don't have transportation or the financial means to get that done. So we remove both those obstacles, and we help pick up animals from camps, bring them to spay and neuter appointments, pay for that, and then bring them back to their pet owners.
And then, along with the homeless service providers, we started doing what we call ready-together appointments, and that's really important to me. I'm really proud of this direction, because at one point I worked at a nonprofit that provided housing support and navigation, and I saw and spoke with a lot of people who had pets and were refusing to go into shelter or housing because their pets couldn't come with them, for various reasons: vaccines, spay and neuter, county licensing, the number of animals.
So our ready-together appointments are really intentional, one-on-one conversations that we have with vulnerable pet owners to see how we can help them become shelter- or housing-ready alongside their pets, and we navigate all of those barriers and resources. So, kind of the whole gamut. We get a lot of different questions and requests, and we just do our best to do it all.
Dunne: It sounds like it. Well, I'm curious too. Certainly, I've talked to a lot of people in Central Oregon, and there's sort of a perfect storm: It's a very expensive place to live, and there isn't a lot of housing stock. So I imagine that is the number one issue impacting a lot of your clients, isn't it?
Johnson-Weinberg: Oh, yes. Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people, even if they wanted to go into shelter or get housed tomorrow, the reality is there just isn't enough shelter beds or available housing for them. So, in that interim, while we're working with them and getting them connected to housing providers, getting them into our local continuum of care and assessed and things like that, we're just navigating and trying to make their life a tiny bit easier, and making sure their pets are healthy and they have the resources they need.
But yeah, I mean, I think it's often misunderstood. People say, “Well, just go out and get a job,” or “Just go get into shelter or housing.” And the reality is people can't, and it's even harder when they have multiple animals.
Dunne: We're going to take a break. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon on the Record. When we come back, more of our conversation with Companion Animal Medical Project, or CAMP.
Dunne: And we're back. I'm Michael Dunne, and you're listening to Oregon on the Record. Let's get back to our conversation with Companion Animal Medical Project, or CAMP. I can hardly imagine the challenge of needing a place to sleep but having a pet, and being given the choice of either: Well, we have a bed for you, but not for your dog or cat. Illustrate that more for our audience, that kind of decision that a lot of people unfortunately have to make.
Johnson-Weinberg: Yeah, well, I mean, it's an incredibly hard decision, and easily the answer is: Well, I just won't go. And that includes hospital care and treatment as well. People decline getting hospital care, going into the hospital, or going to get substance treatment because they have to choose between that and their animal. And, simply put, people always choose their animal. So we get calls from shelters, housing providers, our local hospital, St. Charles, weekly, about people needing care or a place to go, but their animals can't come. And if we can help, we do.
It's certainly challenging, and it just shows how strong the human-animal bond is, and that many people will forgo the care they need so they can stay with their best friend, which is hard.
Dunne: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm almost wondering too, and this may be a larger question for another day, but I am wondering, and maybe organizations like you as well: Is there education you can do with shelters and whatnot that can kind of explain, maybe bust through some negative myths about an accompanying pet? I'm just wondering if there are ways you can advocate that it actually works better if someone can go to a shelter with their pet. It might actually be a better thing. I'm just wondering if that's ever a conversation.
Johnson-Weinberg: No, you're spot on. And thankfully, a lot of the funding that has come through our state for shelters does have parameters around shelters being low barrier. So what that means is folks don't need to be clean and sober. Criminal histories can be of a spectrum, and shelters must have a policy allowing pets, ESAs or companion animals. So we are seeing that shift, thankfully, in the shelter network: People and homeless response systems are seeing that we need to better account for pets when we're talking about homelessness, because it's such a pivotal thing for people when making that decision. So, thankfully, we are starting to see that emphasis on low-barrier shelters, which includes allowing animals.
Dunne: So you've been doing this for a while. Has the need just exponentially increased? We keep hearing about how our homeless situation is getting worse, and you're right on the ground. Is it certainly a situation that is exacerbating in Central Oregon?
Johnson-Weinberg: I mean, there was that recent news that we, like many CoCs and regional groups throughout the county, participate in the annual point-in-time count, and we did see a decrease in homelessness. I think, in large part, that was because there was a lot of funding available to provide nonprofits doing the on-the-ground work, meeting with people, outreach, providing services and getting them connected to services. And a lot of that money went toward shelter beds.
So we saw a decrease in homelessness, but the need still is so great. There are a lot of vulnerable populations: seniors. That's one of the fastest-growing populations of homelessness, which is really hard to see, that our senior folks are getting priced out of housing. I think the next few years will be challenging, with a lot of funding going away. So we didn't fix it, and I don't know how we're going to fix it moving forward. But yeah, it's certainly hard.
Dunne: Yeah, I understand. Talk a little bit about your funding model. How does it all come together?
Johnson-Weinberg: Yeah, well, all of our services are free for those we serve. So vaccines, wellness, spay and neuter, emergency care, pet food and supplies: All of that we offer at no cost. We're all about, again, removing barriers, and as we know, finances is a primary barrier for a lot of folks. So, to make sure that we can do that, we use individual donations, sponsorships and grants. Historically, we've gone after more human-oriented grants, in that homeless service network, because we know pets are such a critical part in helping people exit homelessness. So we're going to start to see that funding get a little tighter as well, with less available and more organizations going after grants.
But yeah, I mean, I think the community also sees the value in what we're doing, and we're grateful that we have a really supportive community. When we have a high-need request, like a litter of parvo puppies or an animal that was run over, generally we just try to put that out into the community and ask for help. And we're fortunate that usually we can get a good amount of money raised.
But yeah, I'm not going to say that it's easy being funded. We are fortunate to have made it this far, and hopefully we can continue with everyone's support, through grants and other means, and stay relevant.
Dunne: Sure, sure. Well, do you have any longer-term goals that you're hoping to reach? Obviously money is going to be a deciding factor, of course, but just, you know, how would you like to see your program evolve?
Johnson-Weinberg: Yeah, kind of going back to the number of people who decline medical treatment or substance treatment due to not having a place for their animals to go: My pie-in-the-sky goal would be to one day have a building where we could offer temporary boarding, so we can fulfill that very high need here in Central Oregon. I think that will help people make really important decisions about their own well-being, and we can care for their animals and make sure they can be reunited once all that happens.
So, if someone wanted to donate a whole building, that would be my dream. We would continue all of our other programs, our vet care and outreach and housing and shelter support, but I would really like to one day take that next step and help people get the care they need without fear of losing their animal.
Dunne: Sure, sure. Well, and that leads to my last question, which is: How can the community help you? What are things people can do? Obviously, funding is a big part, but are there volunteer opportunities as well?
Johnson-Weinberg: Yeah, we are always looking for volunteers. We're trying to go bigger. No community is too far away for me to serve, so we're always looking for more volunteers, whether that's in the veterinary field or just boots on the ground, helping check people in, passing out pet food and supplies.
I think even just sharing our mission matters. We've been around for six years, and we still hear, “Oh, I didn't know this resource existed.” So I would love for everyone to know about us, whether they're donating or just sharing what we do. That would mean a whole lot to me.
Dunne: She is Johannah Johnson-Weinberg, the founder and executive director for Companion Animal Medical Project, or CAMP. Johannah, thank you so much for coming on and talking to us.
Johnson-Weinberg: Thank you so much. I really appreciate this opportunity. So, thank you.
Dunne: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon on the Record are available as a podcast at klcc.org. On our final show this week highlighting nonprofits, you'll hear about several nonprofits in Lane County that are joining forces to become more impactful in the community, and we'll talk about that collaboration. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon on the Record. Thanks for listening.
