PORTLAND, Ore. — The abrupt shutdown of a resource center for homeless people in downtown Portland late last month happened as a result of alleged misconduct by the staff contracted to operate it, according to Multnomah County officials.
On March 29, a county Health Department manager received a complaint involving all three of the contractors that worked at the Behavior Health Resource Center building on Southwest Park and Oak. The next morning, the county said it began to address the allegations by temporarily closing down the center.
“It was the perfect time to shut down, do the intense training period, as well as the safety upgrades and launch a separate investigation into the allegations,” said Janie Gullickson, executive director at Mental Health Addiction Association of Oregon — the primary contractor that provides services at BHRC.
No county employees or homeless clients were named in the allegations, Multnomah County said.
Instead, the allegations concerned the Mental Health Addiction Association of Oregon, which the Multnomah County contracts to operate the day center, along with security contractor DPI Security and custodial services provider Northwest Success.
The complaint said that staff from each of the three contractors were involved in inappropriate relationships with other staff. It also indicated that some contracted staff may have used an illegal drug in "powder" form on-site.
“Closing the Resource Center was a difficult, but necessary step to get to the heart of this complaint, resolve any issues, and set expectations for the high level of service we expect from our contractors going forward,’’ said Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson in a press release.
“Any time you have allegations of a certain nature, you have to treat them very credibly with due diligence,” said Valdez Bravo, interim director at the Multnomah County Health Department. “That doesn't usually happen overnight.”
MHAAO said it immediately began its own investigation, and so far concluded that the "relationship" claims have been unfounded.
The county also requested investigations from the other two companies. On April 7, DPI Security notified the county that one of their security guards admitted to using cocaine and marijuana on-site and was immediately fired.
As a result, the county directed DPI to replace all of its staff at the center. The contractor said it did not have enough staff available to take over, so Multnomah County switched contractors to Northwest Enforcement Inc.
County officials initially told the media that the closure was for staff to get more training on the volume of overdoses and mental health crises they see as well as address “problems with site security.”
"Because of the nature of the allegations, the county did not disclose the details of the March 29 complaint publicly to preserve the integrity of the investigations and to ensure the allegations could be credibly reviewed," officials said in a Monday press release.
“I understand that the public's right to know is if something truly had happened that was egregious that we somehow were not disclosing,” added Julie Sullivan-Springhetti, communications director at Multnomah County. “But that is not in fact the case. There were broad allegations made up mostly about relationships between people, consenting adult relationships.”
As of Monday, the BHRC had reopened to clients. According to the county, the Mental Health Addiction Association of Oregon did complete additional staff training during the closure — including for ethics, safety, de-escalation and administering Narcan.
Multnomah County also said that it added more security cameras inside of the BHRC building, added window protection and made other upgrades for accessibility and safety. Going forward, the center will also have an on-site nurse from Multnomah County and will host a mobile medical clinic once a week.