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The leader of Portland’s largest enhanced services district warned Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson that it won’t make any of the district’s security teams or cleaning crews available to manage the impact of the Coordinated Care Pathway Center on Southeast Sandy Boulevard.
Known previously as the deflection center, the building is a receiving facility for people stopped for drug possession who choose to avoid jail by seeking treatment. It was supposed to open Sept. 1, when police resumed arrests for possession under a new law created by the Legislature in House Bill 4002 that repealed much of Measure 110.
Vega Pederson directed the center to open even though the county and a committee of local residents and businesses hadn’t reached a “good neighbor” agreement guaranteeing the conduct of operations at the center. Committee members are concerned that people arrested citywide will arrive at the center and then be released in the neighborhood with no way to go elsewhere.
“Following your announcement last week that the deflection center will open without a good neighbor agreement, I am writing to clarify expectations for using our enhanced service teams,” Carolyne Holcomb, executive director of Central Eastside Together, said in Monday’s letter to Vega Pederson. “Since our initial July 23 meeting with county staff, the GNA committee has spent over 80 collective hours working with your team to establish this agreement. Despite our efforts, meaningful discussions with the HB 4002 Leadership Team were blocked, and you did not attend any meetings.”
A spokeswoman for Vega Pederson said the chair designated Commissioner Sharon Meieran to represent the county board at good neighbor agreement meetings. “The chair’s senior staff, including the policy advisor for House Bill 4002 have been in attendance at every GNA meeting,” spokeswoman Sara Guest added.
Meieran strongly disputed that account. “I have attended meetings as I continue to represent my constituents, whom the Chair has disrespected at every turn,” she said in a statement Wednesday evening.
Meieran and City Council candidate Vadim Mozyrsky held a press conference earlier today in front of the Pathway Center to decry the “disregard” for neighborhood concerns about its impacts. “All parties are vested in the success of the deflection center, which, if operated properly, can help people impacted by drug addiction,” Meieran and Mozyrsky wrote in a statement. “But it’s hard to see how success can flow from the current pattern of poor planning, poor implementation, and lack of community involvement.”
The press event called further attention to Holcomb’s warning.
Holcomb complained in the letter that she requested the final plan for safety around the Pathway Center on Sept. 23, and got it Sept. 27, “giving us just five business days to provide recommendations before your notice that the Center would open without an agreement.”
“Given the lack of precise planning for maintaining clean and safe conditions around the deflection center, the county and its operators should not expect to rely on our enhanced service providers,” Holcomb wrote. “Our services are specifically dedicated to the district, and we must maintain our already limited resources. Per your team’s request, I have gathered quotes from our providers. I am ready to discuss what an appropriate investment would look like should you choose to make a financial investment for the duration of the deflection center’s presence in the district.”
There are three enhanced service districts in Portland. In addition to the one on the inner eastside, which is the largest geographically, there is one downtown and another in the Lloyd District. Property owners in the districts pay fees that cover extra cleaning and security.