PORTLAND, Ore. — As temperatures plummeted below freezing during the winter storm that hit the Portland area earlier this month, Multnomah County had 12 emergency shelters open. They all closed as of Wednesday, Jan. 17, as temperatures were expected to rebound.
County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson and Chief Operating Officer Serena Cruz made the decision to shutter the shelters. They pointed to county metrics that are supposed to inform when to operate emergency shelters — forecasted temperatures of 25 degrees or lower, or if temperatures are forecast to be 32 degrees or lower with an inch of precipitation overnight.
And the metrics prescribe that these can't be isolated lows. The thresholds must be met for at least four hours and happen between the hours of 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. Under the county's current model, the shelters open if those metrics are expected to be met. If they aren't, the shelters close.
During the winter storm, those county leaders relied on a forecast that expected temperatures to hit 40 degrees by Wednesday afternoon, so they closed shelters as of Wednesday morning. But the weather did not change so dramatically, and more than a thousand people were sent out onto the frozen streets. It would be days before the city saw a real thawing out.
Though it quickly became clear that the weather would not take a turn for the better in the short-term, Multnomah County did not reopen emergency shelters. For that matter, none of the Portland metro counties did, with a single exception. Many people were understandably upset.
Begging the question
Viewers of The Story will be familiar with Commissioner Sharon Meieran, an emergency room doctor who's emerged as something of a perennial critic of county leadership. In an interview with Pat Dooris. Meieran said that she wasn't consulted about the decision to close the shelters — and she was furious about it.
"I thought it was abhorrent," Meieran said. "The bottom line is just from a common-sense, human standpoint of thinking about people who are most vulnerable in our community, who are getting respite and warmth and shelter from the storm, and you're basically kicking them out into the ice and cold — and that, to me, that just shocks my conscience."
The rationale that the decision was made to align with county metrics doesn't hold water for Meieran. The county sets the metrics, which means that it can set them aside as well.
"I mean, it's sort of this circular argument, in my view," she said. "The standards themselves need to be reevaluated — and I've actually expressed this to county leadership for years — and then, even if the standards aren't met, then we need to use discretionary factors. You know, like literally put a foot outside the door and recognize that this is not habitable weather, and then make a decision and adjust based on that."
While there were suspected hypothermia deaths during the early days of the storm and while shelters were open, no deaths of this kind were reported after the shelters closed. Still, Meieran said, she hopes that the county will learn from this event.
"I have to say, we've seen situations of more and more people dying on our streets, even without the extreme weather, with more and more unprecedented amounts of money," she said, "and been calling for, 'Can we do things to stop people from dying on our streets?' Haven't seen that change. ... Hopefully there'll be enough of a public outcry to make some things happen."
Meieran stressed that other county commissioners are not in the loop when it comes to making these decisions, and she was likewise unaware of a 2023 analysis commissioned by the city of Portland and Multnomah County that found the local emergency shelter response "disjointed, inefficient and a communications black hole," as reported Monday by Willamette Week.
"It's fragmentation, it's those silos, it's dysfunction, it's churn in leadership," said Meieran, who appreciates that at least now these issues are seeing the light of day. "For example, in our health department we've had, like, I think it's six different health department leaders in 7 years, five behavioral health directors in 6 years ... I mean, that kind of churn — you can't do anything with that kind of leadership void."
Some of these bureaucratic failures were able to fly under the radar for years, Meieran opined, because the city and county weren't under major stress. But the last few years brought a "confluence of crises" that pushed the whole structure to the brink.
"So, whether it's behavioral health, you know, fentanyl, mental illness, COVID, extreme heat, extreme cold, fires ... those stressors, they're kind of like a tornado hitting the house of cards ... and we need to build better," she said.
One reason that county officials cited for not reversing course on shutting down shelters is that it had already released the volunteers necessary to keep them open, when it was a struggle to get the shelters adequately staffed in the first place. In a commentary piece, The Story's Pat Dooris opined that the county should cultivate a list of trained volunteers year-round to call up on just such an occasion as this.
As it turns out, the 2023 analysis had recommended precisely that, according to the Willamette Week's reporting, and the report advised that the city and county have an "up-to-date contact list with specific safety- and security-related subject matter experts prior to shelter activation.”
"So many people want to help," Meieran said. "The hearts of people who are in this county; they're so big in the city of Portland — we just need to give them the place, the support, the resources and the organization to do the work they want to do to help. And we just haven't provided any of that infrastructure."
A united front
Vega Pederson and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler put out a joint statement Thursday with three major themes: demonstrating that the two governments are, in fact, working together; highlighting the things that did work well during the winter storm; and starting to discuss what can be done to better coordinate the next time something like this happens.
The two elected officials said that they convened a meeting between leadership from both governments to talk about ways to better prepare and coordinate, revise their contingency plan, commit to "continued development" of a joint emergency management plan, and work on a unified public information approach. It's not clear who was in attendance at the meeting beyond the two leaders.
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“Our community requires a strong and unified response for when extreme weather hits," Vega Pederson and Wheeler said. "We are committed to working together to improve the way we serve all residents of Portland and Multnomah County, particularly those living on our streets.
"Today’s discussion focused on shelter operations and coordination. As cold weather remains in the forecast, it is important for us to build on what went well and take immediate action to resource the next crisis with more coordination.
"We both want to acknowledge the hard-working County and City employees who joined this unprecedented response around the clock to keep our community safe, including shelter volunteers and providers, first responders, transportation staff, utility providers, emergency managers, essential workers and health and public safety partners.”
During the days that Multnomah County did have shelters up and running, there were eventually a record 12 warming shelters open at once, serving nearly 1,300 people — another record. Willamette Week reported that county employees filled 69% of volunteer shifts, compared to 7% filled by city employees.