I noticed the worthless Tri-Met security standing there idle while that incident played out. The bureaucrats don't want to do anything except for take in more money.
What do you think should be done, specifically? Is there a place for civil commitment into safe rehabilitation facilities in cases like these?
A recent story out of Seattle reported that a 9-year-old boy is living in a tent in a public park. He's with his parents, when they're around. His mother is a drug addict who prostitutes herself in the tent (making the boy wait in the bushes); his father works and apparently has a long criminal history. Both parents have refused all services for themselves and the boy. CPS and police have visited the tent, and say there is no legal authority to remove the boy.
I actually agree that removing children from parents should be an extreme last resort. That's a hugely traumatic experience for the children, who have a right to the dutiful care of their parents. So, when parents are breaking laws, neglecting their child, etc., why not apply justice and compassion in a way that enforces laws while also upholding the child's rights? Why not commit the entire family to involuntary, long-term rehabilitation? We spent billions on prisons, foster care, and rehab. A more targeted application of all three -- applied to the whole family -- might serve all parties best.
Is there something wrong in that idea? I tend libertarian in my opinions about the use of government power, because I know that's a slippery slope. But it is as harmful to neglect justice as it is to misapply force. Wise application of law (and the force to apply it) is key.
Forced hospital care, involuntary treatment, civil commitment, whatever you call it, is obviously necessary in the cases described in the article. When someone overdoses on fentanyl and almost dies, they should be taken to the hospital ER and admitted on a civil commitment. It is obvious these people are gravely disabled and require containment, detox, talk therapy, and sometimes medication treatments to assist them to kick the habit.
Did Portland open a hospital a few years back just for people in crisis on the streets, needing help? I feel like I read about that around 2019 or so? I know the ERs are full many nights but I can't imagine they have endless beds available to help people. Just spending several days in the Sunnyside Kaiser ER last summer with a friend and her very sick adult daughter showed me that they are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people coming in, on top of the covid era cuts to staffing they've continued to struggle under to serve the patients. And on top of THAT, nurses, notably CNA's, are assaulted and injured everyday in hospitals the nation over. It's one thing to want to get people the help that dignity requires but quite another to expect doctors, nurses, and medical staff to do it all without adequate staffing and security. It's worse now that covid era policies have not readjusted to even normal levels.
I wonder if more grass roots funded organizations are needed for real funding and help for our homeless neighbors because I sure don't trust state or federal governments to manage funding when they seem to waste tax money on everything but what people need. You can barely get street potholes fixed or more light in some neighborhoods let alone actually help people in crisis. Many local churches, do what they can, and do much more than they are snidely portrayed as doing, by those calling for their tax exempt status to be repealed. But unless a major shift in thinking (and personal conviction of soul to do something to help) happens both state or nationwide we are going to be seeing -or living -in this crisis for a long time.
I seriously doubt that the charitable work some churches may do would begin to approach equivalency to the enormous tax breaks that many religious organizations enjoy, without ever having to open their books.
There are things churches need to do to keep the doors open, and there are certainly grifters under the guise of "religious organizations," but there are many, many smaller churches that don't have much yet give much of what they bring in from people who are willing (not coerced or guilted) to give for a cause, like helping a local food bank or supporting vetted non-government funded work for helping families get off the streets. It is a bad idea to take tax exemption away from all churches because of a few grifters. There are agencies that keep an eye on and vet where the money is spent if you send donations for a cause. Individual churches have been robbed by organizations and individuals who are siphoning off funds collected in good faith by those of us that can or want to help. It's not perfect but its a way we can work together do something good for our neighbors. More taxes don't seem to be helping, at least not in Portland.
If you look at recommendations available online the city should have 1250 psychiatric beds and currently, we have 250. Unity opened up here 2017 after OSHU and Portland Adventist and Good Sam closed their units. It appears that about one third of all hospital beds should be devoted to psychiatry to meet the demands. I think we need a modern civil commitment system that limits forced treatment to six weeks, many more acute care beds, a substituted judgement standard for consent to care for those involuntarily committed, and judges hearing these cases within 12 hours of hospital admission. We would be doing the right thing for the people who need services. It would lower the public expenses to deal upfront with issues rather than degrade our tax base, business revenue, housing prices, and police department capability. Oregon is very short sighted always in the way it governs and Portland is in a state of public emergency and has been for many years. It has become more evident that we need to change course here, stop the idea of warehousing the severely mentally ill in housing, and really beef up our criminal justice and mental health systems. Private organizations can do what government can't to assist the severely mentally ill in a number of ways and have done so in the past.
As the fools march against ICE for attempting to remove ILLEGAL ALIENS from our midst this is allowed to continue. Why don't those people march against this? Could it be there are some of the same criminal elements in both? Maybe they should put on the "old" chicken costumes and march up and down SE 82nd Avenue calling out sex traffickers? 🐥
Back when Portland had sane liberals in charge, people on the streets were offered mental health and addiction services who clearly needed them, and if they refused were told to move along because they couldn’t camp and do drugs on taxpayer funded streets and parks. Good old social work and human services have been replaced with a taxpayer-funded homeless industrial complex that sees “outreach workers” in brand new Ford F-350s bringing food, medicine and warm blankets to these people. It doesn’t take a dummy to realize the sort of perverse incentives this creates. More, not less people on the streets. Multnomah county is now losing jobs, losing population, to neighboring counties. People are voting with their feet, and a once great city is turning into a shithole slum. Metro, stop encouraging this madness. Either reconfigure the implementation details of this income tax or eliminate it, because it is not working.
All of the overdoses and near deaths, would qualify under HB 2005 for grave disability and can be involuntarily hospitalized. The people who are coming close to dying, are the ones that will likely die of an overdose in the future.
Just sent a letter to the editor of The Oregonian pointing out the conspicuous gap in their coverage. Their reporting of trafficking generally begins after intervention.
Sounds straight from the depths of hell. Dante’s inferno. God help us all from the depravity and hopelessness. I was born and raised in that state and I can’t believe what has become of it.
In plain sight. A firsthand account of trafficking, overdose, and survival on Portland’s streets. By Kevin Dahlgren (12/30/25). Kevin Dahlgren vividly and tragically describes sex trafficking and exploitation in once orderly, pristine Portland, OR. Is this tragedy being repeated in your city? https://tinyurl.com/4y6u2uu5
How did 1000 beds for psychiatry beds just disappear? Or are they there but not usable because of some discrepancy in policy? I can't wrap my head around the mess Portland has become. It's a terrible shame, depressing shame.
@Apo: The US accounts for 70% of the global blood plasma trade. When I heard this number, it was like a blow to the head. I couldn't believe Americans had to endure such suffering. Today I saw another statistic, and I still can't accept this social phenomenon. The US accounts for 30-40% of the world's drug trials and clinical trials, and about 9% of American adults have participated in these trials. This means many middle-class people also participate, simply for a little money. Why? Tell me why? Why is American society so cruel?
🥺🥺
These women live their best lives free of any societal constraints while serving as a reminder to the rest of us about the evils of capitalism. Clearly, after ten years into the homeless emergency, most people in Portland are cool with it and would not change a thing.
You mean the evils of socialism. This is what happens when the people get taxed to high heaven and the government promises to redistribute it to the poor but enrich themselves instead.
Well done, Portland, from top to bottom. The PPB is a joke, where is the enforcement of simple laws? No wonder the city is in a death spiral…..
I noticed the worthless Tri-Met security standing there idle while that incident played out. The bureaucrats don't want to do anything except for take in more money.
Thank you for this reporting, Kevin.
What do you think should be done, specifically? Is there a place for civil commitment into safe rehabilitation facilities in cases like these?
A recent story out of Seattle reported that a 9-year-old boy is living in a tent in a public park. He's with his parents, when they're around. His mother is a drug addict who prostitutes herself in the tent (making the boy wait in the bushes); his father works and apparently has a long criminal history. Both parents have refused all services for themselves and the boy. CPS and police have visited the tent, and say there is no legal authority to remove the boy.
I actually agree that removing children from parents should be an extreme last resort. That's a hugely traumatic experience for the children, who have a right to the dutiful care of their parents. So, when parents are breaking laws, neglecting their child, etc., why not apply justice and compassion in a way that enforces laws while also upholding the child's rights? Why not commit the entire family to involuntary, long-term rehabilitation? We spent billions on prisons, foster care, and rehab. A more targeted application of all three -- applied to the whole family -- might serve all parties best.
Is there something wrong in that idea? I tend libertarian in my opinions about the use of government power, because I know that's a slippery slope. But it is as harmful to neglect justice as it is to misapply force. Wise application of law (and the force to apply it) is key.
Forced hospital care, involuntary treatment, civil commitment, whatever you call it, is obviously necessary in the cases described in the article. When someone overdoses on fentanyl and almost dies, they should be taken to the hospital ER and admitted on a civil commitment. It is obvious these people are gravely disabled and require containment, detox, talk therapy, and sometimes medication treatments to assist them to kick the habit.
Did Portland open a hospital a few years back just for people in crisis on the streets, needing help? I feel like I read about that around 2019 or so? I know the ERs are full many nights but I can't imagine they have endless beds available to help people. Just spending several days in the Sunnyside Kaiser ER last summer with a friend and her very sick adult daughter showed me that they are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people coming in, on top of the covid era cuts to staffing they've continued to struggle under to serve the patients. And on top of THAT, nurses, notably CNA's, are assaulted and injured everyday in hospitals the nation over. It's one thing to want to get people the help that dignity requires but quite another to expect doctors, nurses, and medical staff to do it all without adequate staffing and security. It's worse now that covid era policies have not readjusted to even normal levels.
I wonder if more grass roots funded organizations are needed for real funding and help for our homeless neighbors because I sure don't trust state or federal governments to manage funding when they seem to waste tax money on everything but what people need. You can barely get street potholes fixed or more light in some neighborhoods let alone actually help people in crisis. Many local churches, do what they can, and do much more than they are snidely portrayed as doing, by those calling for their tax exempt status to be repealed. But unless a major shift in thinking (and personal conviction of soul to do something to help) happens both state or nationwide we are going to be seeing -or living -in this crisis for a long time.
I seriously doubt that the charitable work some churches may do would begin to approach equivalency to the enormous tax breaks that many religious organizations enjoy, without ever having to open their books.
That's not being snide, that's being a realist.
There are things churches need to do to keep the doors open, and there are certainly grifters under the guise of "religious organizations," but there are many, many smaller churches that don't have much yet give much of what they bring in from people who are willing (not coerced or guilted) to give for a cause, like helping a local food bank or supporting vetted non-government funded work for helping families get off the streets. It is a bad idea to take tax exemption away from all churches because of a few grifters. There are agencies that keep an eye on and vet where the money is spent if you send donations for a cause. Individual churches have been robbed by organizations and individuals who are siphoning off funds collected in good faith by those of us that can or want to help. It's not perfect but its a way we can work together do something good for our neighbors. More taxes don't seem to be helping, at least not in Portland.
💯
If you look at recommendations available online the city should have 1250 psychiatric beds and currently, we have 250. Unity opened up here 2017 after OSHU and Portland Adventist and Good Sam closed their units. It appears that about one third of all hospital beds should be devoted to psychiatry to meet the demands. I think we need a modern civil commitment system that limits forced treatment to six weeks, many more acute care beds, a substituted judgement standard for consent to care for those involuntarily committed, and judges hearing these cases within 12 hours of hospital admission. We would be doing the right thing for the people who need services. It would lower the public expenses to deal upfront with issues rather than degrade our tax base, business revenue, housing prices, and police department capability. Oregon is very short sighted always in the way it governs and Portland is in a state of public emergency and has been for many years. It has become more evident that we need to change course here, stop the idea of warehousing the severely mentally ill in housing, and really beef up our criminal justice and mental health systems. Private organizations can do what government can't to assist the severely mentally ill in a number of ways and have done so in the past.
As the fools march against ICE for attempting to remove ILLEGAL ALIENS from our midst this is allowed to continue. Why don't those people march against this? Could it be there are some of the same criminal elements in both? Maybe they should put on the "old" chicken costumes and march up and down SE 82nd Avenue calling out sex traffickers? 🐥
Back when Portland had sane liberals in charge, people on the streets were offered mental health and addiction services who clearly needed them, and if they refused were told to move along because they couldn’t camp and do drugs on taxpayer funded streets and parks. Good old social work and human services have been replaced with a taxpayer-funded homeless industrial complex that sees “outreach workers” in brand new Ford F-350s bringing food, medicine and warm blankets to these people. It doesn’t take a dummy to realize the sort of perverse incentives this creates. More, not less people on the streets. Multnomah county is now losing jobs, losing population, to neighboring counties. People are voting with their feet, and a once great city is turning into a shithole slum. Metro, stop encouraging this madness. Either reconfigure the implementation details of this income tax or eliminate it, because it is not working.
I would bet my life Portland wouldn't stand up to a DOGE scrutiny, we need a Nick Shirley to explode the rot in Moscow on the Willamette.
DOGE "scrutiny"? Chain saws don't know scrutiny.
Are you denying the effectiveness of DOGE? Of Nick Shirley?
We have fraud in this country comparable to a Sequoia, that would require a chainsaw IMO.
Time to put politics aside and do what's best for the country for a change.
This is heartbreaking and tragic and preventable. Thank you for this report. Sharing where I can.
All of the overdoses and near deaths, would qualify under HB 2005 for grave disability and can be involuntarily hospitalized. The people who are coming close to dying, are the ones that will likely die of an overdose in the future.
A challenging but important read. Thanks, Kevin.
Just sent a letter to the editor of The Oregonian pointing out the conspicuous gap in their coverage. Their reporting of trafficking generally begins after intervention.
A story hard to read, but necessary this time of year.
They toppled statues of Washington allegedly for owning slaves 250 years ago but aid and abet this modern day abomination.
Sounds straight from the depths of hell. Dante’s inferno. God help us all from the depravity and hopelessness. I was born and raised in that state and I can’t believe what has become of it.
Shared this excellent article:
In plain sight. A firsthand account of trafficking, overdose, and survival on Portland’s streets. By Kevin Dahlgren (12/30/25). Kevin Dahlgren vividly and tragically describes sex trafficking and exploitation in once orderly, pristine Portland, OR. Is this tragedy being repeated in your city? https://tinyurl.com/4y6u2uu5
Excellent reporting Kevin. Bravo. Please be careful out there and please look after Tara, I worry about you both.
How did 1000 beds for psychiatry beds just disappear? Or are they there but not usable because of some discrepancy in policy? I can't wrap my head around the mess Portland has become. It's a terrible shame, depressing shame.
@Apo: The US accounts for 70% of the global blood plasma trade. When I heard this number, it was like a blow to the head. I couldn't believe Americans had to endure such suffering. Today I saw another statistic, and I still can't accept this social phenomenon. The US accounts for 30-40% of the world's drug trials and clinical trials, and about 9% of American adults have participated in these trials. This means many middle-class people also participate, simply for a little money. Why? Tell me why? Why is American society so cruel? 🥺🥺
A 2018 article about a middle aged school teacher donating blood to get by.
https://time.com/5395001/teacher-in-america/
These women live their best lives free of any societal constraints while serving as a reminder to the rest of us about the evils of capitalism. Clearly, after ten years into the homeless emergency, most people in Portland are cool with it and would not change a thing.
Capitalism? Portland is a communist "community" that doesn't give a shit about the residents, those who pay taxes and those who don't.
You mean the evils of socialism. This is what happens when the people get taxed to high heaven and the government promises to redistribute it to the poor but enrich themselves instead.