It’s not easy to give these homes a once-over from the inside. You can look at them on the outside, of course. But much of what they do – and who resides there – may not be readily available to the public, not even the neighbors.
About four years ago, at one of City Hall’s interminable community conversations where the public is invited to offer input into various subjects, a Portland resident named Jack Peek, Sr. attended and raised objections to a group home in his neighborhood. The moderator at this meeting, Judith Mowry, of Portland’s Office of Equity and Human Rights, immediately shut him down and would not let him continue.
It turned out that Peek had a reputation for being an activist – but not on the progressive side. Consequently, no freedom of speech for him.
I visited him at his home and saw the place he was concerned about. It almost abutted his back yard. He had every reason to want details about the occupants. You can’t just knock on the door, though, and say “I’d like to come in and have a look around.”
These homes and the workings of the state’s Psychiatric Security Review Board don’t invite public participation. The hearings are open to the public and conducted like court proceedings, but the deliberations are in private.
You might recall some of the enthusiastic coverage from the 2021 legislative session when $350 million was budgeted for the mental health system to hire more staff, provide more housing, etc.
State Rep. Rob Nosse, (D-Portland) told OPB “We’ll all hopefully look back four to six years from now and go, ‘2021 was the year things started to turn around.’”
He and state Sen. Kate Lieber (D-Beaverton) were featured in a flattering piece in The Portland Tribune regarding this mental health package. Lieber has served on the Psychiatric Security Review Board, but given that she also turned up in Willamette Week’s “Water Hogs” with a photo of her lavish spread, it’s not likely she will ever have to worry about sharing her neighborhood with a group home for the criminally insane.
It’s not easy to give these homes a once-over from the inside. You can look at them on the outside, of course. But much of what they do – and who resides there – may not be readily available to the public, not even the neighbors.
About four years ago, at one of City Hall’s interminable community conversations where the public is invited to offer input into various subjects, a Portland resident named Jack Peek, Sr. attended and raised objections to a group home in his neighborhood. The moderator at this meeting, Judith Mowry, of Portland’s Office of Equity and Human Rights, immediately shut him down and would not let him continue.
It turned out that Peek had a reputation for being an activist – but not on the progressive side. Consequently, no freedom of speech for him.
I visited him at his home and saw the place he was concerned about. It almost abutted his back yard. He had every reason to want details about the occupants. You can’t just knock on the door, though, and say “I’d like to come in and have a look around.”
These homes and the workings of the state’s Psychiatric Security Review Board don’t invite public participation. The hearings are open to the public and conducted like court proceedings, but the deliberations are in private.
You might recall some of the enthusiastic coverage from the 2021 legislative session when $350 million was budgeted for the mental health system to hire more staff, provide more housing, etc.
State Rep. Rob Nosse, (D-Portland) told OPB “We’ll all hopefully look back four to six years from now and go, ‘2021 was the year things started to turn around.’”
He and state Sen. Kate Lieber (D-Beaverton) were featured in a flattering piece in The Portland Tribune regarding this mental health package. Lieber has served on the Psychiatric Security Review Board, but given that she also turned up in Willamette Week’s “Water Hogs” with a photo of her lavish spread, it’s not likely she will ever have to worry about sharing her neighborhood with a group home for the criminally insane.