Portland City Council Public Safety Committee will vote on a resolution that directs Portland Street Response to grow into a 24-7, co-equal branch of the first responder system
Unfortunately PSR has been a real failure for Portland. They seem to focus on enabling homelessness by passing out tents, granola bars and water bottles instead of actually getting people off the streets. Moving problematic individuals from one neighborhood to another is of limited help. We should really be focusing our energy and money on increasing our PPB/MHP teams (BHT's Behavioral Health Response Teams) and having the well funded Multnomah County take over PSR with Project Respond (who can actually get people off the streets when they are a danger to themselves and others.)
Moving people from one place to another describes how the city approaches camp sweeps, not Portland Street Response. Portland Street Response is a first response system, dealing with not only the preponderance of calls that 911 operators didn't have good options for, but also, would tie up police resources.
Clearly non officer responses are very appropriate for many situations…cheaper and equally effective. Unfortunately PSR was designed by Joanne Hardesty and ended up more focused on enabling than getting people off the cruel streets. They offer cigarettes, tents and granola bars to cajole people to move along. To be more effective we need to embed MHP’s within the PPB and have Multnomah County step up, meet their responsibilities and expand Project Respond as they can actually commit those who are a danger to themselves and others. And of course underlying this is the dire need to get people OFF the cruel streets, which means offering shelter and enforcement of our no camping laws for those that refuse it. The “hands off” approach has failed us miserably.
Thank you, Kaia for information and inspiration. I'm forwarding this to my neighbor.
Terrific!
Thank you, Kaia, for alerting us to testify and providing the pathway to let our voices be heard.
Unfortunately PSR has been a real failure for Portland. They seem to focus on enabling homelessness by passing out tents, granola bars and water bottles instead of actually getting people off the streets. Moving problematic individuals from one neighborhood to another is of limited help. We should really be focusing our energy and money on increasing our PPB/MHP teams (BHT's Behavioral Health Response Teams) and having the well funded Multnomah County take over PSR with Project Respond (who can actually get people off the streets when they are a danger to themselves and others.)
https://www.portland.gov/police/divisions/behavioral-health-unit#toc-behavioral-health-response-team
Moving people from one place to another describes how the city approaches camp sweeps, not Portland Street Response. Portland Street Response is a first response system, dealing with not only the preponderance of calls that 911 operators didn't have good options for, but also, would tie up police resources.
Clearly non officer responses are very appropriate for many situations…cheaper and equally effective. Unfortunately PSR was designed by Joanne Hardesty and ended up more focused on enabling than getting people off the cruel streets. They offer cigarettes, tents and granola bars to cajole people to move along. To be more effective we need to embed MHP’s within the PPB and have Multnomah County step up, meet their responsibilities and expand Project Respond as they can actually commit those who are a danger to themselves and others. And of course underlying this is the dire need to get people OFF the cruel streets, which means offering shelter and enforcement of our no camping laws for those that refuse it. The “hands off” approach has failed us miserably.