In line with Street Roots' campaign, Wheeler earmarks $500,000 in contingency funds for an alternative first response to crises on the streets
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler recommended $500,000 for Portland Street Response in his proposed city budget released earlier today. The program is a critical first step toward caring for people struggling with homelessness or experiencing behavioral health crises on our streets.
In March, Street Roots published a proposal for Portland Street Response after analyzing how the city was responding to calls for service to address street homelessness and evaluating options for a more compassionate and fiscally responsible approach.
Our proposal consists of teams of alternative first responders – medics and peer-support specialists with behavioral health and de-escalation training who respond to non-criminal disorders and “unwanted persons” calls that Portland police are currently tied up handling.
The analysis was developed by our editorial team, and the advocacy arm of our organization launched a campaign to garner support for the plan in the community. The first lift was to call on the mayor to fund a position at the Bureau of Emergency Communications, or BOEC, who would develop it – a path forward suggested by Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s office.
That position was funded, and it will focus on developing the nurse and mental health triage program at the 911 dispatch center as initially intended.
What wasn’t expected, however, was the mayor’s proposed $500,000 in contingency for Portland Street Response.
Wheeler called the nurse triage pilot a critical must-have first step, but that the city wants to move more quickly. The $500,000 set aside, Wheeler said, is “to do whatever else we can do the first year.”
We applaud the mayor’s ambitious commitment, a contingency item of discretionary resources in the General Fund, although contingency funds are often targeted during the budget process.
Portland Street Response was inspired by CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) in Eugene, which has been effectively and compassionately responding to behavioral health crises and issues involving homelessness for 30 years.
CAHOOTS also caught the attention of Portland city officials in recent months, and in January, Wheeler paid the program a visit. But Wheeler said during a press briefing at City Hall earlier today that Portland is different from Eugene and the City of Roses can’t simply adopt the CAHOOTS template.
“In Portland we have different infrastructure,” Wheeler said. “We have Project Respond, we have Central City Concern, we have the CHIERS program, we have a number of nonprofits partners, we have the city and county engaged in different ways, the public health authority engaged in different ways, but the basic principles are completely valid, and principles that we should support here.
“For me,” he added, “the core principle is if someone is in crisis on our streets, are we in fact sending the appropriate people to deal with it? And right now, we’re predominantly sending armed police officers, and they have said overwhelmingly, they don’t think they’re the right people to respond to people in crisis.”
Likewise, Wheeler said people in the community don’t think armed police are the right response either. He said his office received more than 300 emails related to Street Roots’ campaign.
“So, we’re all in lockstep – the police bureau, the fire bureau, the emergency communications bureau,” he said. “We all have a vested interest in better addressing the needs on the streets, making sure we are sending the appropriate trained personnel, and that includes people with experience in mental health issues and people with experience in addiction issues and wisely using the limited resources we have.”
While $500,000 will get the ball rolling, funding still needs to be secured for the program’s full implementation and sustained operation.
The details of the program have yet to take shape. But Wheeler told Street Roots he wanted to make sure the city had a commitment to funding the project. As a contingency item, the money will be held in a reserve account until the City Accounting Office determines there is a specific purpose for the funds.
Who would oversee this new arm of government is also yet to be decided, but Wheeler suggested it would live somewhere between the Bureau of Emergency Communications – where the calls are received – and the Portland Fire and Rescue Department.
“My initial gut reaction is the police bureau is not the right center of that universe,” he said.
We agree.
He said he plans to engage the full City Council in the decision making process, and that Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s role will be critically important, as she serves as the fire, emergency communications and emergency management commissioner.
How Portland Street Response takes shape, which bureau it’s operated through, and how the teams are recruited for and trained will all have significant impacts on the success and effectiveness of the program. It is vital that the city bring a spectrum of voices to the table, from inside and outside City Hall, to create an effective and responsive program. This is far from being a done deal. Even popular plans without continual public pressure have been known to die. It’s up to all of us to keep the pressure strong. Learn more at portlandstreetresponse.org.
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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.
