Multnomah County defines completion of the program as accessing services. In three months, five people chose outpatient treatment, and one went into inpatient detox.<\/p>\n
PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014 It’s been nearly a year since Multnomah County opened its deflection center in Portland’s Central Eastside, its original role envisioned as a place for law enforcement to take people caught in possession of drugs for connection to treatment instead of jail and prosecution.<\/p>\n
The Coordinated Care Pathway Center opened in October<\/a> despite significant pushback from neighbors. But some of the problems those neighbors envisioned haven’t really materialized.<\/p>\n “Nothing is really changing for the better,” said Jens Knudsen, co-chair of the Buckman Community Association. “We did anticipate a higher volume of people entering the neighborhood and sticking around \u2014 truth is, they haven’t been bringing that many people there in the first place.”<\/p>\n County data bears that out. From January 1 to March 31 of this year, officers referred people to the deflection center 62 times. Of those, 42 actually “engaged” with the program, meaning they arrived and spoke with staff.<\/p>\n Only six people completed deflection. And completion does not necessarily mean that someone has sought and received treatment \u2014 far from it. Completion means someone has accessed at least one service referral within 30 days.<\/p>\n The six who completed deflection accessed eight services between them. Five went to outpatient treatment, two received peer services, and one person went into withdrawal management, also known as detox.<\/p>\n “Cool,” Knudsen said flatly. “We paid how many millions of dollars for one person to go to detox?”<\/p>\n Multnomah County spent $3.8 million in taxpayer dollars to turn this temporary location<\/a> into the Coordinated Care Pathway Center. Since it opened, a $4.3 million state grant has been funding operations. That runs out next month, and the county said that it anticipates more state funding in October.<\/p>\n “We should be getting people help, not spending money to do nothing,” said David Watnick.<\/p>\n RELATED:\u00a0Law enforcement no longer the sole source of drop-offs for Multnomah County’s sobering center<\/a><\/p>\n