PORTLAND, Ore. — It’s been three days since Multnomah County’s first drug deflection center opened, and frustration is growing among neighbors. The center, also known as the Coordinated Care Pathway Center, opened Monday off Southeast Sandy Boulevard — and despite the wording of its name, much of the surrounding community has a lot to say about the perceived lack of coordination leading up to this week.
“We're getting constant feedback from every property owner around here, and it's not that they don't want it here, they just don't know ... it's just fuzzy, it's been fuzzy since day one,” said Todd Deneffe, who’s on the board of the Central Eastside Industrial Council.
The center is meant to be a place law enforcement can take people who are caught solely in possession of hard drugs and get them connected to recovery services. Since it opened Monday, law enforcement officers have dropped two people off to receive care services there.
In a Wednesday morning news conference held outside the center and led by county commissioner Sharon Meieran, community leaders pointed out some obvious flaws in that plan.
“No one disputes that we do not have services available to deflect people to,” Meieran said.
Given the lack of treatment beds in Multnomah County, many people taken to the deflection center could end up right back on the streets.
“Opening the center is not the end of the controversy here. I think it's the beginning of the rest of the nightmare,” said Meieran.
Despite the center opening Monday, there is still no signed Good Neighbor Agreement between the county and people like Jens Knudsen, who lives nearby.
“There has been support for the deflection, but this is not the model we feel will succeed,” said Knudsen.
A spokesperson for Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson told KGW the county is “committed to staying at the negotiating table until a Good Neighbor Agreement is finalized.”
“One of the sticking points on the Good Neighbor Agreement is the county's steadfast refusal that it would ever be binding,” said David Watnick, the attorney representing a neighboring preschool called Escuela Viva, where his children go.
The school previously filed a lawsuit against the county, alleging they violated Oregon public meetings law by making decisions about the deflection center behind closed doors. On Friday, a judge blocked their order to stop the opening of the center. But the lawsuit is not dead yet, as Watnick and his client are discussing the next steps.
The school is now spending tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket on security upgrades and staff Narcan training in anticipation of what the deflection center could bring to the neighborhood.
“We want these treatment centers to work, we want these people to receive help. I also want to feel safe with my kids here every day,” added Chelsea Parrett, who has a child at Escuela Viva.
The community is now calling on the county for increased security patrols around the site, daily data on how many people are being served, and more neighborhood meetings.
“What we want is to know and go forward with confidence that we do not need to police the situation,” Knudsen.
“It's incredibly disheartening and it feels like pretty hopeless,” said Parrett.
A spokesperson for the county chair added in a statement to KGW:
“The county continues to be present and available to neighbors … We are taking every possible measure to provide safety to the Buckman neighborhood and to all of our neighbors … We are providing dedicated transportation during center operating hours and maintaining 24-7 security, patrols and interventions to limit neighborhood disruption."
Those working with the deflection center are asking the community for patience. That includes Tony Vezina, executive director of 4D Recovery, which is one of the groups leading outreach efforts as part of the option for deflection that went into effect September 1 when Oregon recriminalized drug possession.
“The rush in opening the center causes there to be some limitations in the beginning what we have to remember is that this is an iterative process ,which means it’s going to get better with time. This is step one out of a multi-step process ... everybody’s working really really hard on it, we’ve been going the extra mile to figure out what’s going to work," said Vezina.
Also at the news conference was Vadim Mozyrsky, who is running for Multnomah County Commission District 1, where the deflection center is located.
"What we have here is systemic failure throughout the years," said Mozyrsky. "It's not just what's happening at this center right now ... I love this city, I love this county — I want us to succeed, I want this center to succeed — but it can't be in secret meetings, it can't be by leaving the public out. That's all I ask here."
KGW also caught up with Mozyrsky's opponent Meghan Moyer on Wednesday, who shares a similar stance.
"One of the things I think is so important related to deflection that really is going to fall on the next county commission is let's make sure deflection actually leads to treatment," Moyer said. "Right now we are just handing referrals to services that have days, weeks, even sometimes months-long waitlists, and that's not a real choice."
Earlier this week, KGW was told county chair Jessica Vega Pederson will be giving an update on the deflection center in several weeks.