PORTLAND, Ore. — Multnomah County's drug deflection center will officially open Oct. 14, the county announced Monday. The facility was initially planned to open Sept. 1, coinciding with the recriminalization of hard drugs in Oregon and the start of the county's deflection program, but staffing and renovation challenges prevented it from hitting that target.
County officials previously said they were eyeing a new opening date range of mid-to-late October. In a news release Monday afternoon, the county said that Tuerk House, the Baltimore-based nonprofit contracted to run the center, has reached adequate staff levels.
"We are looking forward to Monday’s opening of the Coordinated Care Pathway Center," Tuerk House CEO Bernard Gyebi-Foster said in a statement. "We are confident in the team and facility we have in place, and we are eager to welcome the people of Multnomah County and support their recovery journeys."
The facility at 980 Southeast Pine Street will officially be called the Coordinated Care Pathway Center. It won't initially be open 24-7, operating instead on a more limited schedule of 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends, which the county said are the hours of peak demand. Security will be on-site and patrol the perimeter 24-7.
The deflection program was established under Oregon House Bill 4002, which partially rolled back Measure 110 and created a new misdemeanor charge for simple possession of hard drugs. The county-level deflection program gives people caught with hard drugs the option to "deflect" into treatment instead of being charged and sent into the justice system.
Multnomah County describes the Coordinated Care Pathway Center as a physical hub for its deflection program, giving law enforcement a place to immediately bring people who are caught with drugs and agree to deflection. The county plans to expand the facility to 24-hour operation by April, according to the news release, and will also add up to 16 sobering beds.
"The number one request of law enforcement partners continues to be this Pathway Center coming online and increasing our ability to respond in the moment," Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson said in a statement. "Our commitment to building a successful, coordinated system that connects those eligible for deflection with behavioral health and addiction resources continues with this opening. This next step is also our quickest way to the sobering services we know is one of our most pressing needs."
During the initial six weeks, the program has operated on a mobile basis, with outreach workers deployed to meet up with police in the field and offer to connect offenders with treatment. The county announced on Friday that 71 people have been referred into the program since it launched.
The county is separately working to open a 30-50 bed sobering center to replace an earlier facility run by Central City Concern. The prior facility had operated for more than 30 years and was the only sobering center in the city when the nonprofit shut it down in 2019, saying it wasn't equipped to respond to the fentanyl crisis.
The Board of County Commissioners voted Sept. 19 to authorize an expedited procurement process for the space, and the county plans to issue a request for proposals later this month and select a contractor early next year, according to Monday's news release.
