PORTLAND, Ore. — With the 90-day fentanyl emergency ending in two weeks, many are wondering if the efforts — upped police patrols, outreach workers hitting the streets and local government funding safety measures — are working, particularly in downtown Portland.
That answer varies depending on who you ask.
Damian Stone, who is homeless, explained why he is addicted to fentanyl: "It helps you get away from the pain of dope sickness and other emotional pains."
Stone said he stays around the Multnomah County Central Library, which is closer to his dealers.
"It's easier to get somebody to either do a trade with you or just buy it," he explained.
It's one of the frequent transactions that Southwest Portland resident Andrea Swinehart watches from her kitchen window.
"It's every ... basically every night," she said. "They have taken over the park at night, for sure."
On Friday morning, at least, the park was clear, thanks in part to a city-wide effort called "We Believe in Portland."
"There's about a few thousand people that came down all from Portland — businesses and employees that want to help clean up Portland," said local business owner Julian Pscheid. "It's been cleaner than I think a lot of people think it is."
Yet one block away, on Southwest 10th Avenue and Salmon Street, Portland police arrested someone who was using drugs when officers first spotted them. That person was taken into custody an outstanding warrant.
It's a police response that's become common — during the day, that is.
"I would like to see them (the police) out at all hours," Swinehart said.
But Craig Dobson, a Portland Police Bureau (PPB) commander at Central Precinct, admits they don't make the first move.
"Because they want to avoid contact with the police, they try to adjust, and so we adjust with them, and it's almost like a game that we play with them," Dobson said.
"We have to react; we don't get to choose where they go to sell their drugs," he continued. "It would be nice, but that's not the option, and so we are constantly almost behind one step behind in where it's going. But because we're having constant interactions with them, it's easy for us to follow and figure out where it's going on."
Under the state of emergency, declared late January, lights will soon go up around the Central Library, another tactic to stop drug dealing at night.
"They know not to come out during the day," Jennifer, who was homeless in Portland for 20 years, told KGW.
But installing lights is a move, she knows, that will only go so far.
"There's no fixing it. It's supply and demand, and there's so much of it," she concluded.
Patrick, who lives in Southwest Portland, agrees.
"I tend to tell people these days, 'It's not your grandma's South Park blocks anymore; it's more 'the fentanyl blocks,'" he said.
Patrick lives in an affordable housing complex in between the Central Library and the South Park blocks, where city officials are planning to meet with his building management team to talk safety measures.
"It's a really sad situation to see, but we really need to help people on the streets, but we need to crack down on the fentanyl because it's killing people," Patrick said.
"This is absolutely a number-one issue for us," Dobson said. "It's been our focus, and that's where we're spending lots of our resources on to get after it."
PPB said tracking drug dealers and arresting people only goes so far — what they really need is the help of more outreach workers to make that connection with people struggling with addiction. Officers teamed up with outreach workers on Thursday and are planning to do it again in the coming weeks.
In the end, though, Swinehart admits, "When I look out the window, I get really angry because I love this city and I love my life here and those people are just really taking that away."