City leaders discuss future of Portland fire’s Street Response amid $11m shortage

Brandon Thompson
·3 min read
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The City of Portland’s budget crunch could spell cuts to Portland Fire and Rescue, including decreased funding for Portland Street Response. However, there are numerous potential ways the gap could be filled and city leaders are still hashing out how exactly to do that.

Mayor Ted Wheeler has requested a 5% cut from nearly all the bureaus. Wheeler had wanted none of the public safety bureaus to face cuts, however, increasing overtime at PF&R means the future is uncertain for Portland Street Response, a program currently providing assistance citywide to people experiencing mental health and behavioral health crises, according to its website.

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Portland Fire Chief Ryan Gillespie has presented three options to overcome the $11 million shortfall:

  • Option one — take out the entire $11 million out of the PF&R budget by cutting $3 million from Street Response, cutting $4.5 million by getting rid of three fire and rescue units, and cut the final $3 million by defunding one fire station.

  • Option two — Portland City Council finds $4 million for the PF&R, leaving the $3 million cut to Street Response, and cutting just two fire rescue units.

  • Option three — Portland City Council finds $11 million to fill the gap, fully funding PF&R this year.

Gillespie said option three is the one he finds most desirable. However, even if that were chosen, the same budgetary shortfall issues for PF&R would likely come up again next year.

Gillespie said PF&R is “committed to finding alternative funding for these programs” despite “extreme challenges across the bureau, including our community health programs.”

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One of the major issues the budget shortfall highlights is an increase in overtime since Portland fire’s union contract recently shortened their work week by an hour. The fire bureau estimates it would need 70 more firefighters to cut overtime pay in half, saving $2 million years down the road. However, the long-term savings would only take place after a large initial investment to hire those firefighters.

The second major issue the budget shortage underscores: Portland Street Response was originally funded with one-time COVID grants from the federal government. Those are going away and now city staff and city councilors are having to figure out the rest.

“Throughout the city’s budget and the public, got used to that. How surprising. Now we’re back to reality. And we’re not getting those big windfalls,” Commissioner Dan Ryan said.

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KOIN 6 News asked Portland Commissioner Carmen Rubio whether she thinks the city should have made better budgeting decisions around the one-time funding. This was her response:

“You know, we always learn as we go, that’s what continuous improvement is all about. One of those learnings is that we need a full continuum of responses so that we can more effectively reach every single Portlander in the way that they need.”

PF&R’s overdose response team — a program specifically geared toward preventing overdose deaths and approved by city council last month — won’t face any cuts at this time because they are funded entirely by a grant from Care Oregon.

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Different commissioners have proposed various ideas for closing the budget gap, such as Rubio floating the notion of using interest from the Portland Clean Energy Fund. Ryan has also floated using Metro supportive housing service tax money and Commissioner Rene Gonzalez has long wanted the Multnomah County’s Joint Office of Homeless Services to fund part of Street Response.

KOIN 6 News reached out to Multnomah County about using JOHS funds to fill the gap for Street Response but they did not respond. Metro told KOIN 6 News in response to our request that any funding authorization would have to go through to county. However, Metro added that it’s unclear if money from the supportive housing tax would be legally allowed to be used for a city program because no one has ever tried it yet.

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