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The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners approved a plan to proceed with retrofitting a vacant building on Southeast Sandy Boulevard to turn it into a deflection center where people arrested for drug possession can go if they agree to take steps toward treatment.
The vote, following hours of testimony and debate, was 3–2. County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson voted for the plan, along with Commissioners Jesse Beason and Lori Stegmann. Commissioners Sharon Meieran and Julia Brim Edwards voted against.
“We have a building that needs building,” Beason said during the debate.
Construction is expected to cost as much as $2 million. The vote was one of the few chances for commissioners to determine the fate of the deflection center, plans for which are being worked out in closed-door meetings among County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, District Attorney Mike Schmidt, DA-elect Nathan Vasquez, Portland Police Chief Bob Day, and others.
Residents of the Buckman neighborhood, where the center will be located, used public testimony time to rail against the plan, calling it dangerous and incomplete. Many of the people opposing the plan were parents of children at Escuela Viva, a preschool a block and a half away from the site of the deflection center.
“I am deeply concerned that without a rigorous plan in place, opening the center will invite a flood of fentanyl use and sale into the blocks immediately surrounding the center, including the sidewalks adjacent to the Escuela Viva parking lot and playground,” said David Watnick, the parent of a 3-year-old at the school. “I lose sleep at night worrying about the safety of my children, fearful that they might inadvertently ingest fentanyl while playing outside at school after the deflection center opens.”
The Oregon Legislature introduced the term “deflection” in House Bill 4002, passed in March, which recriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs, overturning a central plank of Measure 110. As a condition of that, the Legislature asked counties to take steps to keep drug users out of the criminal justice system, as Measure 110 intended.
Recriminalization starts Sept. 1. The legislation sets no deadline for setting up deflection services, but Vega Pederson has said that the county intends to have some in place by then.
“Former Majority Leader Senator Kate Lieber, the co-chair of the HB 4002 committee, was very clear that she expected the county to be ready with such an option as soon as possible, because people are going to be arrested on Sept. 1 and they need a place to go,” a county spokesman said in an email.
Nor does the legislation require that a center be opened. Mobile units could intercept people who are willing to accept deflection in lieu of incarceration, Commissioner Meieran said.
That idea appealed to Buckman residents, who clapped for the proposal.
“When I heard about the plan to open a deflection center just 450 feet from our school, I was shocked,” said Miles Rooklyn, a parent of two children at Escuela Viva. “I urge the county board to delay the opening of the deflection center until a detailed operational plan, developed with authentic community involvement and input, can be approved.”
Chair Vega Pederson said she understood people’s concerns and assured residents that the county would look out for their safety and continue to tune the deflection plan.
“I understand the frustration with not having all the information we’d like to have as this moves forward,” Vega Pederson said. “You have my commitment to continue working with the community.”