A prominent Portland lawyer is adding
his voice to the chorus of those
who basically think the county s
lost its mind when it comes to m
reduction for people who use fentanyl.
Multnomah County had planned to
distribute smoking supplies to drug users,
things like straws and tinfoil,
to help people safely use their drugs.
But they walked back to policy
after facing intense criticism
from elected leaders and others.
One of those critics?
Attorney John De Lorenzo.
He has repeatedly sued the city of Portland,
and one.
And did not mince words when I
talked with him this morning.
So we're talking about harm reduction
from Multnomah County and you he
some serious concerns about it.
Can you just spell those out?
Well, I wouldn't call it harm reduction,
I would call it enablement.
And it seems that this county office is
more one of of drug addiction enablement
than it is of harm reduction especially.
If we're going to embark upon a policy
that's going to be untested ands
out foil and drug paraphernaliat
to make it easier for those who have a
horrific addiction to stay addicted, Dean
Lorenzo's words matter.
He most recently sued the City
of Portland on behalf of disabld
folks who use the city sidewalk.
He accused the city of violatine
Americans with Disabilities Acty
allowing homeless campers to blk
the sidewalks with their tents.
The two sides eventually settled
with the city, saying it would
spend millions of dollars focusn
removing sidewalk tents and campsites.
The lawyer now says Multnomah Cy
Health plan to hand out fresh foil and
smoking supplies to fentanyl us.
Well, he says,
that would endanger those with
disabilities who use those sidewalks.
And I felt that a.
County policy that would result
in fentanyl laden toxic tin foil
everywhere throughout the city d
not benefit my clients because
they have to wheel through all f
that debris with their wheelcha.
And he said once people go throh
that stuff with the wheelchairs,
they have to clean it off and that it's
harder than it sounds when you're confined
to a wheelchair and that it's dangerous.
Overall, the lawyer is telling y
leaders they should just stop pg
$40 million a year to the Joint Office
of Homeless Services because hes
the county is actively moving against
city efforts to curb homelessne.
The best thing to do would be to
just cancel the arrangement bece
the quotes I read yesterday.
From, you know, after the county chair
temporarily suspended the contr,
do not give me a lot of comfortt
this thing isn't going to come .
We have staff that is ideological and is
insistent on what they call housing first,
which is really,
let's wait five years until evee
is currently on the street,
dies from overdoses anyway,
and then put whoever's left.
With her hopeless drug addictios
and mental illnesses,
it's a $500,000 a unit housing
and hope that everything's
going to be perfect from that,
from that on,
that's not the approach we should be using.
OK, maybe a little bit of hyperbole in there,
but you get his point.
He believes the two sides are
philosophically divided and the money
the Portland taxpayers are giving the
county is being spent on the wrong things.
I asked the county for a respon.
They questioned the lawyers motives and
the head of the Joint office wrote the
extension of the joint office is a done deal.
Both the city and the county recently agreed
to move forward with a 12 month extension.
The Joint offices relationship
with the city is on the upswingd
we're working every day to incre
our coordination and alignment o
solve homelessness in our regio,
and, he went on to write.
In just the past few months we've doubled
down on our close cooperation around new
temporary alternative shelter s.
Additional safe rest villages ad
expanded Clean Start program to increase
trash removal and our work withe
state to house individuals now sleeping
at the foot of the steel bridge.
By the way,
I contacted the city for their
take on de Lorenzo's letter.
So far I've not heard back from them.