Multnomah County Commissioner Seeks Pause in Deflection Center Project

The plan for the place is incomplete and dangerous, Sharon Meieran says.

County Commission County commissioners discuss the deflection center on July 11. (Anthony Effinger)
By Anthony Effinger

Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran is seeking to pause plans for a $2 million drug deflection center in inner Southeast Portland, saying that too many questions remain about security at the facility and what services will be offered there.

The deflection center is scheduled to open at 900 SE Sandy Blvd. on Sept. 1, giving police a place to take people who are stopped with user amounts of drugs who opt to pursue treatment over jail.

Multnomah County is building the center to comply with House Bill 4002, the legislation that recriminalized drugs in the wake of Measure 110. In it, legislators urged counties to “deflect” people from the criminal justice system and toward treatment, offering money for deflection programs.

Meieran, a consistent critic of County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson’s approach to mental health and drug abuse, says the plan is incomplete and that the September deadline is artificial. Most lacking, Meieran says, is a plan to secure the deflection center so that people under the influence of drugs aren’t left to wander the streets of the Buckman neighborhood after being dropped there.

“Given that there is no obligation for this center to be opened at all, let alone in the artificial timeline promised by the county, it is reasonable that the county delay opening to ensure public safety concerns are fully addressed,” Meieran wrote in a request to Chair Vega Pederson to consider the pause at the county’s Aug. 22 board meeting. “No harm would be caused by a delay, but the county risks substantial harm if it rushes into opening without a comprehensive safety plan.”

Meieran’s request comes four days after an attorney for Escuela Viva Community School wrote to Vega Pederson and others who crafted the deflection center plan, warning that the preschool would take legal action if the county didn’t pause the project and do more work to protect its students, teachers and parents. Escuela Viva is a block from the deflection center site.

Multnomah County’s press office didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment on Meieran’s resolution to pause the deflection center.

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