Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.For more than 30 years, Eugene’s CAHOOTS program has been in place for situations that don’t need an armed police response, like mental health crises, overdoses and homelessness. The program has gotten a lot of national attention, and the model has been an inspiration for cities across the country, including Portland. But last week, White Bird Clinic, which runs CAHOOTS, announced that the hours of service in Eugene city limits will be reduced to just one shift per week — down from 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Amée Markwardt, interim executive director of the White Bird Clinic, joins us to discuss their funding challenges.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. We end today with large cuts to the CAHOOTS Program in Lane County, the pioneering program that has served as a model for Portland Street Response. As Eugene Weekly put it recently, “Eugene’s premier crisis response program that provides mobile intervention in mental and medical crises is itself in crisis due to a budget shortfall.” Last week, the White Bird Clinic, which runs CAHOOTS, announced large staffing cuts and service reductions as a result of those budget problems.
Amée Markwardt is the interim executive director of the nonprofit. She joins me now. It’s good to have you on the show.
Amée Markwardt: Thank you for having me.
Miller: Can you first just remind us what CAHOOTS does?
Markwardt: CAHOOTS really addresses the need in our community to have a non-uniformed public safety intervention. CAHOOTS really looks at addressing the need for behavioral health, medical and social crises in an integrative way, for folks who are really experiencing homelessness and substance use challenges. They provide, historically, 24/7 mobile crisis response teams.
Miller: 24/7, seven days a week – meaning, every day, every hour?
Markwardt: Every single day, every single hour, yeah.
Miller: You say traditionally because that is what’s changing. So I’ve read that the services are going to be reduced down to one shift per week starting on April 7. What will that actually mean in practice, in terms of days and times?
Markwardt: That is something that we’re figuring out this week with the staff, who will be staying in to run that shift. So we’ll have more information to come later.
Miller: When I see one shift, it makes me think Monday through Friday 9 to 5 or something like that, as opposed to 24/7. I mean, it seems like you’re still working it out. But is it fair to assume that it’ll be in the realm of that?
Markwardt: Unfortunately not. What we’re looking at as an agency right now is that it looks like just one shift one time a week, so really severely, drastically reduced.
Miller: Oh, I really misunderstood that one. So eight hours in the course of an entire week as opposed to 24/7?
Markwardt: Yes and I would say that our CAHOOTS team in Springfield will remain as staffed as it has been.
Miller: Right, that’ll be something we can talk about as we go, but the funding for the Springfield version of CAHOOTS is, so far, much less affected. So we’re talking about the CAHOOTS in Eugene, which will be down to maybe just part of a day per week. How big a staff reduction are you looking at?
Markwardt: It’s significant. We’re really looking at two-thirds of that staff who have the opportunity to remain employed but on a relief pool basis, in hopes that we get some funding to gear back up to 24/7, seven days a week.
Miller: So two-thirds of people who had been full-time are being let go?
Markwardt: Not all are full-time. Some are full-time, some are part-time.
Miller: OK, relief pool, meaning if somebody who is on staff but can’t make a particular shift, people in the relief pool could fill in for them. But that’s not anywhere close to a full-time job. That’s just if they want to pick up a couple hours here and there.
Markwardt: Correct.
Miller: These cuts follow a decision back in December to close the Front Rooms Department. What was that?
Markwardt: Front Rooms is a program [that] was able to do some services that not many places get to do in this time. It was mail and messaging, which we still do. It was providing some food, maybe like some sandwiches, to the public, which we still do. So as White Bird is navigating funding cuts, we’re seeing everywhere, from federal, state, county, city. Everybody is really facing funding cuts. That was a call that the agency made at that time, to see if we could survive the funding cuts basically. It wasn’t enough, unfortunately. We’re still really struggling and that’s why we came to this decision.
Miller: So let’s turn, in a deeper way, to the budget issues. Where has your funding traditionally come from?
Markwardt: We have a pretty wide range of funding sources. We do have federal, state, county and city grants. We also have private and family foundational funding. We do fee for services. We get donations.
Miller: How big a drop overall have you seen from the total funding sources?
Markwardt: I won’t get too specific, but it’s in the millions.
Miller: Serious enough that, as you said, there has been a question about whether White Bird, the entire nonprofit that provides a lot of different services, can even survive?
Markwardt: Correct, sadly.
Miller: Is that still an open question? I mean, we’re talking about gutting, [which] doesn’t seem like too strong a word, of CAHOOTS services in Eugene. But is it possible that that’s not enough?
Markwardt: It is absolutely possible that it’s not enough, unfortunately. I mean, we’ve got many different programs in White Bird that are being affected by these cuts. CAHOOTS is one of them, but there are other programs that are experiencing those cuts. And there’s no guarantee that that’s going to work, especially as we are facing a federal government that is looking to have different cuts in different areas.
For example, CDC and SAMHSA just cut $12 billion in grants to states – $117 million of that is in Oregon – with no notice. It just happened. Health and Human Services canceled at least 68 grants that focused on LGBTQIA+ health issues. So it’s not something that’s just localized to White Bird. It is a nationwide problem and White Bird is severely affected by it.
Miller: Has there been federal money that has been promised to you that has either been slow in coming or has not come?
Markwardt: Yes.
Miller: So that’s the federal level. Then there’s also the city level, which has gotten a fair amount of reporting in recent weeks because the city of Eugene has been a big funder, as I understand it, of CAHOOTS in Eugene through the fire department. The city did pass a fire fee, which is expected to raise $10 million a year. But opponents of that fee want to refer that fee to the ballot to overturn it.
Let’s say that it’s not overturned … That fee stays on the books in Eugene and an $11.5 million dollar hole is largely plugged in the city budget. How much would that put you, as a nonprofit, in the clear, keep you whole?
Markwardt: Historically, the city budget has been able to support about 40% of the operational costs of our CAHOOTS team, which is a wonderful amount of money and not enough to also be the only funding source that the team needs. So there’s no guarantee that if it passes or doesn’t pass, that CAHOOTS would get that funding. As you know, the city is facing its own enormous shortfall. We will have to wait and see how that pans out for White Bird.
Miller: CAHOOTS employees are working under their first union contract. It was approved just under a year ago. That was before you became interim executive director. KLCC has reported that that first contract did include significant raises for long serving employees. Do you see a connection between that contract and the level of these recent layoffs?
Markwardt: Not necessarily. I really support that people get paid for the work that they do and that was something that all of White Bird employees have really needed to have for a long time. Our cuts are so big, or the funding that’s been pulled out is so big, that whether we were paying people $18/hour, $30/hour, $20/hour, we would still be struggling.
Miller: I noted in my intro that Portland Street Response was largely modeled on CAHOOTS. And Portland is not alone. CAHOOTS really has been seen nationally as a pioneer and a model for similar kinds of non-law enforcement response for people in crisis. What does it say about the viability of this model regionally, or I guess I’m really thinking nationwide, if the pioneer of it is facing such enormous financial challenges?
Markwardt: It goes to show that, as a community of providers, [we] look into various income and revenue sources that support the programs. So whether that’s through city or county grants,
through smaller private foundational grants, it is wise to diversify. Maybe people can learn from us the importance of this type of program all over the nation. They already learned the importance of this, prior to having funding cuts. So my hope would be that other people get to see what we’re struggling with, what we’re going through, and really support their own communities in shoring up their programs to remain viable, wonderful options in their own communities.
Miller: Do you see enough money in the nonprofit, philanthropic or just private sector, or individual donation worlds, to make up for the level of money that it seems you’re simply either not going to get or likely not going to get from federal, state, county or city governments?
Markwardt: That’s a really tough question isn’t it because, as you see on the news, so many agencies in our community are struggling with very similar shortfalls and cuts. There’s only so much money people have to share and to give. My hope is that yes, there are people who are able and have the ability to share their resources with an agency who’s been in the community to support others in crisis. While we’re going through a crisis, [my hope is] there will be enough to support us in helping other people. It’s nothing that I can obviously guarantee, but something that I’m really hopeful for.
Miller: Amée Markwardt, thanks very much.
Markwardt: Thank you.
Miller: Amée Markwardt is the interim executive director of the nonprofit White Bird Clinic, which recently announced significant cuts to the celebrated crisis-response program, CAHOOTS, in Eugene.
Contact “Think Out Loud®”
If you’d like to comment on any of the topics in this show or suggest a topic of your own, please get in touch with us on Facebook, send an email to thinkoutloud@opb.org, or you can leave a voicemail for us at 503-293-1983. The call-in phone number during the noon hour is 888-665-5865.