Portland Mayor Proposes Street Response Teams Operate 24/7

PORTLAND, OR — Mayor Ted Wheeler announced that his budget proposal will contain the money to expand the Portland Street Response program so that it operates around the clock every day of the week.

The proposal comes on the heels of a new report praising the effectiveness of street response teams.

Wheeler's proposal would more than double the number of workers, bringing the total to 58. The city would add 10 more teams and expand coverage to 24/7 every day of the week under the proposal.

The cost of the expansion would be $8.5 million, according to Wheeler's office.

Commissioner Jo Ann Hardetsy praised the program and the proposed expansion, calling the program "a resounding success." She oversees the Portland Fire Bureau, which operates the program.

"This is the first major update to our first response system in over 150 years, and as a city we should all be proud to have successfully implemented such an innovative and effective new 911 response," she said.

"Portland Street Response fills a key need as we build a diversified community safety system," said Hardesty's colleague on the City Council, Commissioner Carmen Rubio.

Portland Street Response started last year as a pilot program in one neighborhood and went citywide last month. It sends teams of behavioral and mental health workers to respond to calls that used to be handled by police and fire departments.

Having such teams frees up police officers and firefighters to respond to other emergencies, officials said.

Some 22 professionals work on six teams that operate every day from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Earlier this week, the City Council received a report from Dr. Greg Townley and the Portland State University Homeless Research & Action Collaborative that spelled out some of the program's success, including the following.

• The program's call load represented a 4 percent reduction in total calls that police would have traditionally responded to.
• Street response activity represented a 27 percent reduction in police response on nonemergency welfare checks and unwanted persons calls.
• Street response activity represented a reduction of 12.4 percent in fire and rescue activity on behavioral health calls and illegal burn calls.
• 89 percent of street response calls involved no co-response with another first responder entity. Street response only requested a police co-response 18 times throughout its first year.
• Street response was able to resolve the vast majority of its calls in the field, with only 29 clients (3.2 percent of all calls) transported to the hospital for additional care.
• Street response staff engaged more than 2,500 community members in outreach and engagement activities during the first year of the program. These included de-escalation training, door-to-door canvassing at businesses and residences to raise awareness about street response, efforts to keep unhoused people and other community members safe during the record heat waves of summer 2021, and community health clinics.
• Street response clients rated the program a 5 on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.

"This is confirmation of what great work is being done by Portland Street Response," Wheeler said in response to the report. "Our city has long needed an alternative solution to the difficult reality of so many Portlanders suffering from mental health crisis."