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Multnomah County released its “Deflection and Sobering Project Plan” late last night, giving the most comprehensive look yet at how it plans to operate the controversial deflection center in the Buckman neighborhood, where people stopped for drug possession can seek a path to treatment.
As for concerns about safety at the center, the county says it plans to spend $740,000 on security in the first 10 months of operation. The center is scheduled to open at 900 SE Sandy Blvd. on Sept. 1, when drugs decriminalized by Measure 110 begin drawing misdemeanor charges again.
The money will pay for two security guards working around the clock, seven days a week, the 57-page plan says. In addition, county security will patrol the perimeter of the center daily as part of its regular rounds. Security will not “interrupt criminal activity” but instead will call police.
“Around the perimeter of the center, uniformed security can direct people camping or loitering to move along and interrupt acts of vandalism and property damage,” the plan says. “Additional security needs will be assessed after launch and on an ongoing basis.”
The plan, marked “Draft Document: Do Not Distribute,” was developed by a group led by County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson that includes the police chiefs of Portland and Gresham, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt and DA-elect Nathan Vasquez, representatives of Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office and the county Department of Community Justice, and mental health and addiction experts.
When the Oregon Legislature overturned parts of Measure 110 and recriminalized possession of illegal drugs, it urged counties to direct people with user amounts away from jail and toward treatment through “deflection.” The Legislature also appropriated $25 million for Multnomah County to build a sobering center, based on plans developed by Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards. (The chair’s office disputes the $25 million was earmarked for the sobering plan.)
The county’s plan seeks to meld the two missions, starting with deflection. At first, the center will offer food, showers and laundry services, and referrals to medical care and drug treatment. Starting in mid-2025, it will offer sobering services with 13 to 16 beds. It plans to build a new facility at a different site in 2026 that will have a mix of 50 sobering sleeper recliners and “withdrawal management beds.”
“Multnomah County is firmly committed to reducing overdoses and improving public safety and health outcomes,” the plan says. “Treatment remains the most effective pathway to recovery for individuals struggling with addiction. Multnomah County intends to meet both the Oregon Legislature’s definition of deflection and provide sobering and other needed services.”
Planning for the center was done behind closed doors, irking Commissioners Brim-Edwards and Sharon Meieran, who have been sharply critical of the secrecy, the slow pace toward sobering, and what they say is a lack of detail around security at the site, which sits in Meieran’s district.
Commissioner Meieran, for one, remained unconvinced by the security plan for the center today.
“This confirms two things,” Meieran said. “First, there are serious safety issues inside the building. Second, there is literally no plan for safety outside the building. We have a building where people impaired by drugs will be transported across the city and dropped off, with no requirement that they enter or stay, with no requirement they be transported away.”
Meieran has questioned whether the county needs a center at all, suggesting that it rely on mobile units to serve people seeking deflection, and thus avoid neighborhood outcry about safety. Neither Washington County nor Clackamas County is building a center, relying instead on existing infrastructure.
Transportation away from the deflection center has been another concern for Buckman residents, who worry that police will drop drug users at a place that won’t have the authority to detain them.
To assuage such concerns, the county said people would be dropped at the center only if they can make the decision to seek deflection and are not in need of urgent medical or behavioral care.
“When a person is at high risk of medical complications, violence, or psychological concerns, they will be referred to and transported to an appropriate facility” the plan says.
Tuerk House, the Baltimore-based contractor running the center, will call 911 for ambulance transport to an emergency room or the Unity Center for Behavioral Health, the plan says.
David Watnick, an attorney for nearby Escuela Viva Community School, said the county’s security and transportation plans fall short. Watnick sent a letter to Vega Pederson and the planning team last week, saying Escuela Viva would consider legal action if the county didn’t pause plans for the center.
”I think this is a whole bunch of nothing,” Watnick said in an interview. “We’re looking for a security plan that is going to prevent any emergency from happening in the first place.”
Escuela Viva sits just outside the security perimeter described in the deflection document, Watnick said. He worries that people using drugs will congregate there.
”In an emergency, my client already has the ability to call 911,” Watnick said. “That’s not good enough.”
Vadim Mozyrsky, who’s running for county commissioner, gave scathing testimony on the plan today, supporting a proposal by Meieran to delay the center’s opening beyond Sept. 1.
“I’ve attended numerous Buckman meetings where community members have simply asked that they see a plan that meets the needs of their community,” Mozyrsky said. “In return, they’ve been told to wait while planning meetings are held in secret, and multiyear contracts are signed without public input.”
Mozyrsky recommended the county try other deflection methods, like Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, which is recommended by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration through the National Council for Mental Well-being.
“Participants in these programs saw decreasing law enforcement encounters by 55%, decreasing unsheltered times by 38%, and decreasing emergency room visits by 40%,” Mozyrsky said.
“With two weeks left in this sprint to open a center while slow-walking an actual plan, let’s take a step back, listen to the community, and practice what we preach by putting forth a low-cost, evidence-based deflection plan that has worked in other municipalities,” he added.