KPTV · on the Green, Pirtle-Guiney, Morillo and Koyama Lane psychedelics ordinance
The council on September 23 passed to second reading, as amended, an ordinance introduced by Councilors Green, Pirtle-Guiney, Morillo and Koyama Lane that would make personal, non-commercial use of naturally occurring psychedelic plants and fungi one of the city's lowest police priorities and create a Portland Psychedelics Advisory Commission, according to the council record. Green, an Army veteran, told the chamber "I share the PTSD that many of you have for my service, and I think that's why I chose to throw my support behind this ordinance." City officials said the financial impact would be minimal and paid from existing budgets; police would still investigate sales and impaired driving.
The ordinance (2026-186) is scheduled for second reading and final vote on September 30.
Portland police arrested two people after a year-long East Precinct Neighborhood Response Team investigation, begun in September 2025, into drug dealing out of the Safe Rest Village on North Portland Road. Keith Kelly, 36, was charged with cocaine possession and distribution, including distribution within 1,000 feet of a school, and Angela Burns, 65, was charged with cocaine possession and distribution offenses. Urban Alchemy, which operates the site, said no staff members were arrested or charged.
Searches under Multnomah County warrants covered the village and a home in the 400 block of Northeast 16th Avenue, where police said they found meth and suspected drug ledgers.
The Columbian reported that Couve Collective, a recovery nonprofit at 1009 W. 13th St. in downtown Vancouver, has since last winter opened its doors early each day so health care, mental health, recovery and housing workers can meet homeless clients in one place. Partner organizations named in the story include Share, Thrive2Survive, Outsiders Inn and the city's Homeless Assistance and Resources Team. Program director Jackie Peters said some people relocated during a recent encampment cleanup, making them hard for outreach workers to find for a few days.
The Columbian reported August 19 that a Share-led cleanup of a downtown Vancouver encampment left many residents looking for shelter.
The Oregonian/OregonLive · on the Letty Owings Center closure
Central City Concern said it will close the Letty Owings Center, a Portland residential facility where women recover from drug addiction while living with their babies, at the end of October, along with its attached transitional housing facility, Laura's Place. CCC president Dr. Andy Mendenhall estimated that no more than 150 beds exist statewide where children can live with mothers receiving treatment, including the 29 at Letty Owings. CCC's closure announcement cited a 52% increase in the program's operating costs over five years while funding opportunities decreased, and said no other provider was found to take over the program.
Central City Concern's closure announcement sets an effective date of October 31, 2026; the center opened in 1989 and paused new admissions in July.
U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford announced that federal prosecutors will expand a three-year, downtown-focused fentanyl enforcement partnership with the FBI and Portland police to target dealers operating in public housing and outside drug treatment clinics. "We cannot and will not tolerate dealers on our streets, outside of our clinics or inside our public housing," Bradford said at a news conference.
The U.S. Attorney's Office reported on August 25 that more than 100 people have been charged with fentanyl trafficking in downtown Portland since 2023.
A Public Policy Institute of California study estimated that Proposition 47, the 2014 ballot measure reclassifying certain drug and property felonies as misdemeanors, led to about a 10% increase in street homelessness between 2015 and 2019 — roughly 7,000 additional unsheltered Californians, about 20% of the state's overall unsheltered increase in that period. The researchers, led by Magnus Lofstrom, also found the measure increased drug use as measured by overdose deaths and hospitalizations by 7% to 8% and reduced the number of Californians receiving drug treatment by 20%, because courts referred fewer people into treatment programs.
California voters partially rolled back Proposition 47 in November 2024 by passing Proposition 36, which restored felony charges for some repeat drug and theft offenses.
The city is converting the Multnomah Safe Rest Village on Southwest Multnomah Boulevard into a treatment-focused shelter: it will still house people leaving homelessness, but residents will be expected to engage in treatment and counseling during their stay. KGW reported that nearby residents gave mixed reactions and questioned whether the change will resolve the livability problems they have reported around the site.
The village opened in June 2022 as the city's first Safe Rest Village and has been operated by Urban Alchemy since July 2025.
Based on leaked audio recordings, Invisible People reported that sitting HUD and White House Domestic Policy Council officials described plans to roll back Housing First at the Cicero Institute's June 5, 2026 summit in Washington, held four days after HUD released the FY2026 Continuum of Care NOFO. HUD Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development Ronald Kurtz told attendees "homelessness is much less a housing problem than it is a human problem," and HUD's Caitlyn McKenney said 41% of adults in HUD-funded permanent supportive housing self-report substance use disorder.
McKenney is the HUD official whose declaration accompanied the department's August 13 emergency stay motion in the district court.
Washington Policy Center researcher Eric Zimmerman said the widely cited statistic that Seattle's Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program produced a 58% reduction in arrests misstates the original University of Washington evaluation, and called for an audit. LEAD founder Lisa Daugaard said the finding of "58% reduced odds of arrest compared to a robust control group" reflects a meaningful reduction in recidivism, and the University of Washington said it had used "likelihood" in place of "odds," said those instances have been corrected where found, and said it advised the LEAD team to correct its reporting.
LEAD launched in Seattle in 2011 and has been replicated in jurisdictions across the country.
Utah state, Salt Lake City, and Salt Lake County leaders launched three days of workgroup meetings Tuesday to implement the Leifman Group's 25 recommendations for diverting people with mental illness and substance use disorders away from jails and homelessness. County Mayor Jenny Wilson said some recommendations could take up to 10 years while others could be adopted in months, with funding or legislative proposals expected for the session starting in January. Officials cited work already underway, including mental health group homes expected to eventually total 90 beds and an expansion of Salt Lake City's Project CONNECT, which targets the city's 50 most-arrested people.
State leaders' earlier plan for a 1,300-bed homeless campus in northwest Salt Lake City received no legislative funding this year.
Austin's No Wrong Door initiative assigns four Austin police officers — each carrying a caseload of about 25 people since early March — to coordinate treatment, housing, and services for people drawn from roughly 950 residents officials identify as the county's highest "utilizers," whose repeated arrests, ER visits, and psychiatric crises cost an estimated $137 million in public resources annually. All 17 partner organizations signed agreements to share resources and case information. Mayor Kirk Watson said "we're getting some wins, but we're going to need money," and the city plans to ask the Legislature to fund a new mental health crisis care center; the advocacy group VOCAL-TX questioned whether police should be the primary point of contact.
Austin's 2025 point-in-time count found more than 3,200 people living outside or in shelters, up about 50% from roughly 2,150 in 2018.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and HUD Secretary Scott Turner presented the administration's "Treatment First" toolkit at the San Diego Rescue Mission in National City, describing it as a shift away from the Housing First model toward abstinence and long-term recovery; Turner called it "a playbook" of "proven and practical strategies from across the United States of America." Local providers said the region lacks the long-term residential treatment capacity the approach requires; Housing 4 the Homeless director Joanne Standlee said people need 12 to 18 months of residential treatment.
The same secretaries appeared at a Los Angeles treatment center on Aug. 11, where they said LAHSA would not receive more federal money until it showed accountability.
ONDCP, HHS, and HUD released a "Treatment First" toolkit on August 12, presented as implementing the July 2025 executive order "Ending Crime and Disorder on America's Streets." STAT reported the toolkit promotes faith-based interventions and abstinence-based recovery while rejecting harm-reduction principles and the housing-first model. The joint release said 75% of homeless Americans are addicted to drugs and 78% suffer from mental illness; HUD Secretary Scott Turner said "Housing is essential, but housing alone is not enough."
The joint ONDCP/HHS/HUD release is dated August 12, 2026.