Oregon’s mayor is pushing for full funding for the Mental Health Crisis Response Program

By Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
oregonlive.com

PORTLAND, Ore. – Mayor of Portland Ted Wieler said Thursday that its proposed budget for next fiscal year will spare a popular non-police intervention program from the chopping block.

In addition to full financing Portland Street responseWheeler said he will try to prevent any possible cuts to the city’s cash-strapped fire department and protect other public safety agencies from scalebacks.

He teased those details and other facts during held a news conference to highlight parts of a proposed $8.2 billion budget that his office won’t make public until Friday.

According to city budget officials, the mayor will recommend the city spend $732 million, a 3.5% increase from the current $708 million, in discretionary funds, which make up the bulk of the city’s general fund.

The general treasuries received a cash injection of approximately $38 million from the Portland Clean Energy Fund the city’s lucrative, unique climate justice tax on major retailers.

Wheeler said Portland Street Response, which sends teams of mental health professionals and EMTs instead of armed police officers to help people in crisis on the streets, would remain at current staffing levels under his plan.

The program had an operating budget of about $10 million last year — half of which came from one-time funding sources outside the city — but faced a potential $3 million budget cut for the coming year.

The mayor also said his budget would close an $11 million budget gap facing Portland Fire & Rescue amid a sharp increase in overtime spending for firefighters and other personnel. Wheeler’s proposal includes hiring 10 new firefighters to contain overtime costs and raise money to continue the agency’s operations. Assess and treat community health pilot for at least another year, he said.

That program, known as CHAT, sends two fire medics — instead of firefighters and their engines — to help certain Portland residents who are known to be heavy users of 911 and emergency department visits. Fire officials also deployed the medical teams this year treat people who have overdosed outside in Old Town and other parts of Portland.

“My budget fully funds public safety agencies and public safety programs,” Wheeler said.

In addition, the mayor said he will seek to continue investing millions of dollars in clearing homeless encampments, trash collection and graffiti removal by creating a new citywide program focused on livability issues, branded as “Portland Solutions.”

He also touted the upcoming launch of a new Portland Permitting & Development Bureau, currently under the control of Commissioner Carmen Rubio. The agency aims to streamline the city’s byzantine — and almost universally loathed — commercial and residential building permit system, which currently includes seven separate agencies.

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