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Multnomah County is finalizing a lease on building on Southeast Sandy Boulevard for its new “deflection center,” where people on drugs can be dropped off and treated thereby avoiding jail, according to an email to county commissioners from Chair Jessica Vega Pederson.
“I have news to share on our progress towards September 1 and our treatment readiness location,” Vega Pederson wrote. “After a thorough negotiation with a potential building, our facilities team is in the process of finalizing a lease for a facility for our Treatment Readiness Drop-Off Center.”
The address is 900 SE Sandy Blvd., Vega Pederson said in the email.
“There is great transportation access for our law enforcement partners and any needed service providers, both in terms of access from the freeway and site entrances,” Vega Pederson wrote.
The site was first reported by The Oregonian today.
The center, mandated by legislation that amended Measure 110, the 2020 initiative that decriminalized hard drugs, met resistance before the location became known beyond a small circle.
In testimony before the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners today, Susan Lindsay, co-chair of the Buckman Community Association, said she had been contacted by Hayden Miller, senior policy adviser to Vega Pederson, who told her that the center was coming to the Buckman neighborhood
“I have some concerns,” Lindsay said. “There was no on-the-ground involvement from anyone in the neighborhood. “There’s no benefit to a neighborhood that is thriving, and trying to thrive despite a lot of challenges, to simply moving addicts from one part of the city to another and just dropping them off.”
The mission of the center and the definition of “deflection” are still being worked out by Vega Pederson and a small group that includes law enforcement and the district attorney’s office.
In a public meeting June 24, county policy adviser Alicia Temple said the goal of the center was to “connect individuals who would otherwise be arrested for possession of a controlled substance to a behavioral health pathway and recovery.”
The site on Sandy is kitty-corner from Soho House, the hipster-posh, membership-only social club and fitness center that opened in Portland after establishing locations in London, Paris, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. It’s also close to upscale sports bar Jackie’s, as well as the old Lolo Pass Hotel, which Central City Concern bought in February for a residential drug treatment center.
“It’s remarkable that they are going again to Buckman,” Lindsay said in an interview.
Soho House spokesperson Kayla Hoppins declined to comment on the matter.
The building is owned by an entity controlled by SolTerra, a Seattle-based developer that is constructing an apartment-hotel-spa complex, not unlike Soho House, on Northeast Alberta Street.
“The county has a short term lease on this property,” SolTerra executive Danya Feltzin said in an email. The county is “committed to maintaining a peaceful and orderly environment, respecting the community, and addressing any reasonable concerns from neighbors lawfully, promptly and as effectively as reasonably possible. They will be providing transportation to and from the premises, and will use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that individuals utilizing its services do not loiter outside the premises.”
The new center will open Sept. 1, as required by the Legislature, and will offer “screening, basic services, and connection to recovery services,” Vega Pederson said in her email. It will be “open specifically for law enforcement drop off for people possessing user amounts of drugs.”
Multhomah County’s plans for the deflection center have drawn heat from state Rep. Dan Rayfield (D-Corvallis), who helped craft House Bill 4002, the legislation that undid some of Measure 110.
“I do not believe Multnomah County’s proposal to have people sign into what has been described as ‘a drop off center of sorts’ without a screening or follow-up plan complies with either best practices or the requirements of the bill,” Rayfield said in a letter to a group that included Vega Pederson on June 12.
The deflection center is going in the county commissioner district represented by Sharon Meieran, Vega Pederson’s staunchest critic on the board, with whom she spars over homelessness and drug policy. Meieran said she learned about the center’s location through the grapevine.
“The only real deflection that’s been happening here is deflection of accountability,” Meieran said in a text to WW. “Neighbors testified today that they were just notified two days ago that a deflection center would be located in their neighborhood. That disturbs me. What disturbs me even more is that I literally wasn’t notified AT ALL for a deflection center where a lease is already being signed in my district.”