Breakfast Forum: Addressing Addiction and Behavioral Health Challenges on Our Streets

Description

In recent years, addiction to illicit substances has become one of the most visible and complex challenges facing Portland. The impacts are playing out not only in treatment systems but also on the streets, in neighborhoods, and among the region’s unhoused population, where behavioral health needs and substance use disorders often intersect with housing instability.

For years, Portland’s response to addiction has been shaped by competing impulses: compassion and treatment, harm reduction and accountability, public health and public safety. The result has been a system of policies and programs that has often struggled to keep pace with the scale and complexity of the crisis.

Now the landscape is shifting. Rising public concern about visible drug use and street level behavioral health challenges has prompted a broader regional reckoning about how Portland responds to addiction, particularly among people living outside and struggling to access stable care. This moment calls for more than cataloging what services exist. It requires a clearer understanding of what recovery actually demands and whether our current systems are equipped to deliver it.

This Breakfast Forum will begin with a data driven overview of addiction and recovery trends in the Portland region. A moderated panel of frontline providers will then share their perspectives on what it takes to support recovery and what a more coordinated and effective response could look like.