Multnomah County reports 606 law‑enforcement referrals in first year of deflection program; board presses for clearer outcomes

Multnomah County health department staff on Thursday summarized the first year of the county’s deflection program, reporting 606 law‑enforcement referrals and 520 unique individuals between Sept. 1, 2024, and Aug. 31, 2025. Interim Behavioral Health Director Anthony Jordan said 392 people (65%) voluntarily engaged with services and 113 people (29% of those who engaged) accessed at least one service in the program’s 30‑day window.

“These numbers show we are connecting people in the moment and learning how to improve engagement,” Jordan said, describing the program as a front door that connects people to tailored recovery pathways rather than a single treatment model.

Natalie Amar, the county’s deflection program supervisor, told the board that 81% of those who completed the deflection “accessed substance‑use and recovery support services,” including sobering, detox and residential treatment; 22% of the completions went directly into sobering services. Amar said data collection requirements and the county’s reporting to the State Criminal Justice Commission shaped what is captured in the annual report and that a supplemental report with quarterly details will follow.

Several commissioners pushed for clearer metrics and monthly trend lines. Commissioner Moyer said the county must answer whether the program delivers “treatment on demand,” and raised concerns about cost‑per‑person given a relatively small share completing services. “With limited resources, why are we not physically taking people to the next step when they say yes?” she asked.

Amar and Jordan said the program was designed as a front‑door engagement model and noted capacity constraints and policy limits set by the HB 4002 leadership team. They described several pilots launched to expand access — referrals by Portland Street Response, active outreach peers, and a Gresham police collaboration with a community partner — and said staff will evaluate pilot outcomes after six months.

Board members asked for disaggregated referral‑to‑access data (the presentation consolidated multiple treatment categories into a single treatment bar), transport data that shows whether clients were taken to services, and sobering‑bed utilization. Amar said some requested transport and longitudinal follow‑up metrics were not yet analyzed but will be included in a forthcoming supplement. The staff also said they are working to give care coordinators access to the homeless management information system (HMIS) within one quarter to improve coordination with housing case managers.

Budget and funding were central to the discussion. The Criminal Justice Commission set a biennial funding ceiling for Multnomah County at roughly $6.67 million; staff told the board the current contract for operations and sobering is about $1.8 million per year and estimated additional fixed facility costs at roughly $1.5 million for the next biennium. Amar cautioned that the CJC ceiling is unlikely to cover the full set of expansions the county would like to make and that additional funding would be required to implement long‑term follow‑up services.

Commissioner Singleton and others urged the leadership team meetings that set policy and eligibility rules for the program be made more transparent and public so commissioners and community members can see the full range of perspectives and tradeoffs discussed.

The presentation emphasized that deflection is a narrow intervention under HB 4002 — referrals must come from law enforcement when an individual otherwise could be charged with possession of a controlled substance — and staff said expansion of eligibility (for example to some low‑level misdemeanors) is under consideration by the leadership team but no decisions have been made.

Next steps cited by staff include publishing a data supplement with quarterly and transportation data, evaluating the newly launched pilots after six months, completing HMIS access for care coordinators, and continuing work with partners to expand pathways to treatment and housing.

What happens next: staff said the Board will receive the supplement and updated metrics and that a follow‑up deflection work session is scheduled for Dec. 9 to dig into benchmarks, transport data and pilot outcomes.