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Michael Dunne: I'm Michael Dunne. If you were to survey Eugene residents about their favorite services the city has offered, past and present, I bet a large majority of people would say CAHOOTS, the city's nationally known mobile crisis program. Yet, even though it was extremely popular and impactful, the service was recently shuttered. Today on the show, we'll learn how the city is looking to find a replacement. Then, in the second part of the show, we'll check in with our own Love Cross about her series Oregon Ready. That's next on Oregon on the Record. Alan Torres, a reporter with the Eugene Register-Guard, Alan, we always appreciate you coming on. Thanks for joining us.
Alan Torres: Thank you for having me.
Dunne: I read your story about two very different proposals to fill the CAHOOTS service gap. Let's start here, just for folks who may not remember: Can you remind people what CAHOOTS did and why it came to pass that they're no longer providing services in Eugene?
Torres: CAHOOTS was a long-running service here in Eugene contracted through White Bird Clinic. It provided a wide range of services. The short answer is that it responded to mental health, behavioral health, and drug-related 911 calls as an alternative to police and fire departments. It provided medical transport, overdose care, behavioral health care, wound care and much more. The program unwound last year. I have a story from last June detailing exactly how that happened, but the short answer is that everyone wanted someone else to pay for it. At the end of the day, the city and White Bird simply chose to terminate the contract.
Dunne: Since the contract was terminated, have you been able to find any data or anecdotal information about how the lack of CAHOOTS service has been felt on the streets of Eugene?
Torres: The fire department wrote a report last fall aiming to answer that question. What it found is that the total 911 call volume and the total number of calls that police and fire are dispatched to have not dramatically increased. But a lot of calls that used to go to CAHOOTS are now going to the police or fire department, or simply not getting answered. Specifically, the report identified five gaps. It mentioned mid-acuity behavioral response calls: situations where someone is agitated, disorganized or disruptive, but not serious enough to call Lane County Mobile Crisis, yet still requiring a response. Without CAHOOTS, that usually means police. The report also noted the lack of a non-emergency transport option for these individuals, and that social service calls are not really getting a response now. It mentioned complications for youth facing behavioral health crises, based on factors like service hours for Lane County's mobile crisis service. And it noted the absence of aftercare and proactive outreach work that CAHOOTS had provided.
Dunne: Those are real impacts. So, given that the city wanted outside organizations to try and fill this gap, tell us: What was the city's plan that led to two proposals coming in? Walk us through the process.
Torres: This started back in May when the City Council adopted its budget for the biennium. The council designated $500,000 in one-time funding for alternative response, a line item that has historically gone to White Bird for the CAHOOTS program. The fire department then did that study I mentioned and put out a request for proposals for organizations to provide alternative response services in Eugene.
Dunne: And as you point out in your article, the city's request for proposals was not necessarily asking for the same things CAHOOTS used to do. Is that correct?
Torres: That's right. The city put out a request for proposals that approximately describes the downtown peer navigation work currently done by Ideal Option. Ideal Option is one of the bidders for this contract. Peer navigation means talking with people experiencing homelessness and helping them navigate various systems: housing, health care, the courts. That work is adjacent to what CAHOOTS did, but still pretty far from it. They were not handling 911 behavioral health calls the way CAHOOTS was known for.
Dunne: So let's get to the proposals. Talk about the two entities that answered this request for proposals. What do they say they'll do, and how are they different?
Torres: The first is Ideal Option, the Salem-based organization I just mentioned, which provides peer navigators who help people experiencing homelessness navigate various systems. They currently do that work only downtown, and the city has said it wants that work expanded to other parts of town, mostly West Eugene. Their proposal is fairly straightforward: take the work currently being done downtown and expand it to more parts of the city. The second organization is Willamette Valley Crisis Care, which was founded by people who used to work for White Bird and were laid off or left after White Bird ended CAHOOTS in Eugene. Willamette Valley Crisis Care has proposed doing peer navigation work through a partnership with Restored Connections, another local nonprofit that joined with them to submit the bid. Importantly, Willamette Valley Crisis Care also proposes doing work comparable to what CAHOOTS was doing.
Dunne: It sounds like these proposals are very different in scope. This is a finite budget, so what happens next? Does the City Council consider both proposals and then pick a winner?
Torres: I should note a slight caveat: I have not actually read the proposals. I submitted a public records request, and the city denied it. But people associated with both nonprofits helpfully described their proposals to me. I don't have exact dollar figures, but the city set $500,000 as the budget for this contract, while noting that if a proposal exceeds that, a supplemental budget process is possible. A supplemental budget is when City Council edits the budget outside of its normal biennial process. This is actually a staff decision, not a council decision. Staff will choose between the two contracts. But if they select Willamette Valley Crisis Care, which went over budget in its proposal, while Ideal Option did not, the City Council would have to get involved and amend the budget.
Dunne: People listening right now might note that even if a proposal is awarded, this won't be CAHOOTS. It will be different and, in all honesty, offer fewer services than people were accustomed to with CAHOOTS. Is that a fair assessment?
Torres: That's one fair take, and I should clarify about Willamette Valley Crisis Care's proposal: Even though they are proposing a CAHOOTS-like service, they are proposing 10 hours a day, not the 24/7 service CAHOOTS provided. That said, the other side of the argument is what the city has stated: Many of the things CAHOOTS was doing are now being handled by other agencies. Lane County has a mobile crisis service. The fire department has a community paramedicine program it did not have before. And police and fire departments have gotten more creative in how they respond to calls. There is an argument to be made that CAHOOTS-like services are being provided by the government.
Dunne: Alan, is there any timetable on this? You mentioned it's a staff decision and the council may have to get involved if there are budgetary changes. How long might it be before Eugene has something like CAHOOTS again?
Torres: The city has said it plans to respond by the end of this month, and it has asked bidders to be ready to roll out within 60 days of being awarded the contract. If all goes according to schedule, the end of May or beginning of June is when the new program would launch.
Dunne: We'll see how it goes. Alan Torres, a reporter with the Eugene Register-Guard, thank you for taking the time to talk with us.
Torres: Thank you.
Dunne: Love Cross has been informing us on how to be ready for the next big disaster, and today we're talking radio communications. KLCC's Oregon Ready series is helping all of us take one step each month toward becoming two-weeks ready for a disaster. KLCC's own Love Cross is on her own personal quest to become better prepared for disasters, and she's here with us now. Hi, Love.
Love Cross: Hi, Michael. Thanks so much for having me back to talk about Oregon Ready.
Dunne: In your reporting this month, you focus on radio: not just the emergency broadcast radio, but everything from walkie-talkies to ham operators. Talk about how critical that communication link will be.
Cross: I really started looking into this because I'm following Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Policy Committee's pledge to prepare, which maps to the state's two-weeks ready initiative. March's checklist includes securing a battery-powered emergency radio. I already have a few of those in my house, all tuned to KLCC, naturally. I've actually been on the other end of that radio when we've had previous disasters here in Eugene, like the 2024 ice storm, when broadcast radio kept the community informed. But as I got more into March's checklist, I learned that radio isn't just about receiving alerts. It's a whole communication ecosystem. It really kicks in when phones and internet go down, and in a real disaster, that's very likely to happen. These systems rely heavily on volunteers.
Dunne: Full disclosure: my wife is one of those volunteers and a licensed ham radio operator. Tell folks who these volunteer radio people are.
Cross: That takes a true commitment, Michael. She has to be licensed and do the full thing. There are radio networks all over the state. We have a strong one here in Lane County. In Eugene specifically, it's called Eugene MCOM. It's a volunteer emergency communications network with about 100 people involved right now. I talked with Andy Davis, one of the volunteers keeping the system running. Like other volunteer radio networks, they practice a weekly radio net just to make sure everyone stays fluent and ready. During a major event, they self-deploy. Nobody has to call them. They start gathering neighborhood information and radioing it into Eugene's Emergency Operations Center.
Dunne: So that means literally walking neighborhoods, doesn't it?
Cross: Yes. They have what they call damage assessment teams: two or three volunteers who walk an area, check on their neighbors and report what they see. When you think about it, it's hyper-local, real-time intelligence that gets passed up the chain to the city's emergency managers.
Dunne: As part of your series, you've been asking our audience to send in questions, and someone did. They asked: Do I need to become a ham radio operator to be useful in an emergency? What do you say to that?
Cross: The answer is no. You can start with a simple FRS radio, those little walkie-talkies available at sporting goods stores. FRS stands for Family Radio Service. They're cheap, easy to use and work within your neighborhood. That's also a limitation. If you want more range, the next level up is GMRS, which stands for General Mobile Radio Service. That requires an FCC license, but just a fee, no test. Then there's ham radio. That's the big leagues. It has much greater range, and yes, it does require a license and a test from the FCC.
Dunne: You also talked to people in a very sensitive area: the McKenzie River Valley, where communications are much more fragile.
Cross: They really are. The Holiday Farm Fire burned up a lot of the infrastructure people relied on to communicate there, and that's something the community continues to deal with. I spoke with Sarah Hunter, who is part of McKenzie Community Communications. After the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire, and again after the 2024 ice storm, residents realized their one road in and out could easily be blocked, and that power and cell systems go down fast. Radio is literally their lifeline in those situations.
Dunne: Let's hear that clip from Sarah.
Sarah Hunter: If you use a radio to check on your neighbors, you don't have to go out in the dark when it's icy and cold. You don't slip and fall, then find your neighbors are fine but have fire department or EMTs coming after you because you were doing a great thing checking on neighbors. There's a way to do it safely, and there's a way to do it not quite as safely.
Cross: That was eye-opening for me: that handheld radios can keep you from becoming the next emergency. Something else Hunter stressed is that, especially for rural communities, simply knowing your neighbors and knowing who has radios can save time and, in the bigger picture, help keep people safe.
Dunne: For someone listening right now who wants to take that first step, what should they do today?
Cross: Eugene MCOM actually encourages beginners. There's a wealth of information online at EugeneEmComm.org, including starter guides, a place to sign up as a volunteer and information on how to choose your first radio. You can also start simply by giving one to a neighbor and practicing basic communication. Can you hear me? What channel are you on? It's simple, but in a crisis, that knowledge can make a huge difference.
Dunne: You're continuing on this personal preparedness journey. What's next?
Cross: Looking ahead to April, one of the checklist items involves emergency sanitation: specifically, how to deal with human waste when we might not have working toilets. I'm delving into that world for the next couple of weeks.
Dunne: Love Cross will literally go anywhere to get the story. We'll sort of look forward to that.
Cross: Yes, we will. There's a whole two-bucket system you'll learn all about next month. I look forward to coming back right here on Oregon on the Record to fill you in. We continue to gather questions about disaster preparedness. If you have questions, send them to questions@klcc.org and follow along at klcc.org/oregon-ready.
Dunne: Love, we really appreciate you doing this series. Thanks for coming in and talking with us.
Cross: Thanks for having me, Michael.
Outro
Dunne: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon on the Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Tomorrow on the show: Is AI replacing everything? We'll talk with the Eugene Ballet about a new ballet that takes on that existential question. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon on the Record. Thanks for listening.
