It all started with our vendors, gathered for the new paper to arrive, who broke out in cheers over the plan. At Street Roots, we frequently hear their needs about legal entanglements and ideas for the right crisis response, a strong motivation for our senior reporter, Emily Green, to pull together the details of this plan for non-police first responders for people in crisis on the streets.
Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty has endorsed the plan. Her office has proposed funding the development of a pilot program through the Bureau of Emergency Communications (BOEC), which she oversees.
Mayor Ted Wheeler’s communications director, Eileen Park, wrote to me that the plan is “well-researched, thoughtful, and an important deep-dive to the humanitarian crisis unfolding on our streets.” But as of press time, the mayor’s office hasn’t committed to directing any of the budget toward this.
The budget is where those values go. And if there’s no funding, support of this plan goes nowhere.
Let’s call on the mayor to budget for non-police first response. Not every crisis is a crime. When it’s an issue of public health, we need a better response. The Portland Street Response proposes six vans staffed 24 hours a day by a firefighter-trained EMT and a highly trained peer support specialist. We’ve printed the plan on the back page of the March 29-April 4 issue of Street Roots.
The time to act is now because April is the month when residents of the city weigh in on the budget, and the mayor will release the draft budget around May 1. Hardesty’s proposed BOEC pilot for $182,727 is the only budget item that could be committed toward developing a Portland Street Response, so at the very least, this must be funded. We’d like to see additional funding for the Portland Street Response plan, such as a budget for training response teams. The CAHOOTS program in Eugene could help with this training, according to operations coordinator Tim Black.
I hear a desire for a non-police response to non-criminal crises everywhere I go, from baristas, librarians, lawyers, health care practitioners. The public is awake to this. The media is awake to this. The Oregonian reported last July that 52 percent of all arrests targeted unhoused people. Street Roots documented in November how myriad fines and fees from petty legal entanglements drive people deeper into poverty.
There are too many arrests. Too many calls for non-criminal matters. Too slow of response time. Too little trust. The facts stack up; we need bold action.
One of our vendors generously put it this way to me: “Lift the burden off the courts. Lift the burden off the police. They are too busy.”
He was repacking his backpack and spreading out a tarp to dry as he spoke, busy at the work of survival. He described how police and security guards tell him to move on again and again. Perhaps at some point he falls asleep and his bag gets stolen from under his head.
“You blow up. When you are human, you can only take so much.” He accumulates misdemeanors, and these become barriers to housing and employment. They drive people further into poverty. The whole system is absurd and expensive.
The Portland Street Response is about first response. It’s about a better response to people in crisis, and about not making matters worse. We must also strive for more housing, more safe, stable places to rest, more showers, more mental health services. All of this is important, but separate city and county budget items.
It will take bravery on the part of our City Council to make a shift. But the desire for this shift is widespread, and this shift must take place in a bold way, not by cobbling together plans through the Police Bureau.
This is an issue of public health, not criminal enforcement. The least the city can do is fund the pilot position. If nothing is funded, then it’s all empty statements. Let’s be compassionate, constructive and smart. Let’s demand that City Council budget for a better response.
Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots
