Outreach team brings clean drug supplies to Southwest Portland block

PORTLAND, Ore. — There are several reasons homeless people addicted to drugs migrate to the South Park blocks in Southwest Portland, one being that it’s where they get free food three times a week. 

Another reason lies in a storage unit in North Portland, where a small nonprofit called the Portland People’s Outreach Project (PPOP) stores boxes of brand-new supplies for people using drugs.

Mike is one of the volunteers. He digs through a box filled with every type of tool for using drugs one can think of, including glass meth pipes, rolls of aluminum foil, paper clips, cotton balls, small tins to melt drugs and plastic-covered syringes. He pulls out a small glass pipe, called a hammer pipe, that people use to smoke fentanyl. He explains how one end has an opening to fit the size of a blue fentanyl pill.

In the storage unit are also wound care kits, blankets and safe sex supplies. The nonprofit is funded by grants and donations — some coming out of Mike’s own pocket. 

“I’ve gone and I’ve bought incontinence supplies ... I had gotten a couple rolls of foil at one point,” he said.

Through their outreach, PPOP volunteers bring these supplies on foot or on bikes to homeless people across the city. One of their stops is the South Park blocks by Southwest Jefferson Street and Park Avenue, an area where public drug use is common. Portland police have arrested 10 suspected fentanyl dealers there in the past two weeks.

“We have always gone to the places where people are rather than the other way around,” Mike explained.  

“A lot of that makes it really easy to be a homeless drug addict,” added Andrew, who is homeless and addicted to opioids in Southwest Portland.

“We are helping them make better choices,” refuted Mike. He’s talking about people like Nate, who said he goes to PPOP for one thing. 

“I always have a Narcan on me because of services like theirs … Personally, I’ve Narcanned six or seven people in the last month or month and a half,” Nate said.

Andrew has a similar story. He just finished using Narcan to revive a man who overdosed Tuesday morning.

“This was probably like the 30th time I’ve done this in the past year,” he said.

Mike said he sees that as a reason to keep sending supplies to the streets.

“If we closed our doors tomorrow and never came back, people would still be using drugs, but they wouldn’t be using them with Narcan and with this community that we’ve established,” he said.

It’s a community that admits it’s walking a very fine line.

“Having more services, being able to sleep outdoors, generally not being messed with the decriminalization of it, I’m torn between that too ... as an addict, I don’t know what the answer is,” Andrew said.

Multnomah County does not fund PPOP, and they stopped handing out similar smoking supplies back in July. They told KGW they have no plans of restarting that program, which received backlash from city leaders. 

A county spokesperson sent KGW the following statement:

“It was clear more input was needed from the community and our elected leaders. The potency of fentanyl is unlike anything our community has ever faced. The County recognizes the need for robust engagement with the community, people with lived experience and our partners across jurisdictions. ... The County is focused on working in partnership with the City and the State to reduce the rate of death and overdoses and improve access to housing, treatment, and recovery services.”