Portland Street Response (PSR), the city program that dispatches unarmed response teams during non-life threatening mental or behavioral health crises, is now able to offer expanded support. New policies allow PSR to shuttle at-risk individuals to critical services and resources like Temporary Alternative Shelter Sites (TASS), shelters (including temporary shelters, motels/hotels, designated shelter beds or other shelter), day use resource centers, addiction treatment, detox and/or sobering centers and food pantries.
“Portland Street Response is a success story, and expanding its capabilities was a key campaign promise,” Mayor Wilson said. “These new policies empower our dedicated PSR teams to shuttle at-risk individuals to services, including lifesaving shelter, recovery services, day centers and more. Once these changes have been fully implemented, PSR personnel will be able to respond to more call types, connect more individuals to the help they need most and create better outcomes for those they serve.”
The new policies also allow PSR to enter certain public spaces, including lobbies of government buildings, during regular business hours, and privately owned businesses that are open to the public, like restaurants and retail or grocery stores, during regular business hours. Previously, for safety reasons, PSR was not able to respond indoors without a co-responder. PSR is still prohibited from responding to private residences; apartment building lobbies, hallways or apartments; tents, motorhomes, SRVs or other temporary housing, locked buildings and public transportation.
Additionally, the policies will allow PSR to move forward as a first responder team and will provide an opportunity for first responders (Portland Police, Portland Fire & Rescue and AMR) to call in a PSR team when the initial call doesn’t meet PSR criteria. This will allow PSR to be able to respond to more call types and provide services to people in crisis.
“We are humbled by the overwhelming support of the community and our first response partners in addressing PSR’s needs. These policies improve the system as a whole and provide PSR more access to clients and streamlined care for individuals experiencing non-life-threatening crises,” PSR Interim Program Manager April Roa said.
Photo by City of Portland.
