“Hey, Dan. It’s Officer Weed. How are you doing today?”

Tucked behind blue tarps, nestled up against a bay at an abandoned car wash on TV Highway, “Dan” — whose name has been changed for this article — is one of 808 unhoused adults living in Washington County, including 93 unsheltered persons in the City of Hillsboro, per the 2022 Point In Time Count.

Surviving in the forgotten nooks and crannies dotting west Hillsboro for at least a decade, Dan is used to being mostly invisible. People may notice him or, more likely, his camping gear, but few people talk to him or really see him.

Hillsboro Police Department Officer James Weed does.

Officer Weed knows Dan well and checks on him daily. After years of contact with Officer Weed and other City of Hillsboro Police Department employees, Dan is at ease. He’ll accept small gifts of food or socks. He’ll clean up his camp and move on when asked.

“He knows we’re not here to pester him,” Officer Weed says. “He understands we will not violate that trust.”

Weed is part of the Police Department’s two-person Community Impact Team (CIT). Formed approximately 10 years ago as a response to growing mental health emergencies, the department’s mandate has shifted. Today, Officer Weed spends his days responding to and providing outreach to Hillsboro’s unhoused population while mitigating impacts to the rest of the community.

The job is difficult. CIT officers navigate pressing community concerns while juggling changing mandates and rules. Drawing on their crisis intervention training and advanced de-escalation skills, the team is one of the busiest in the Police Department. When they are not responding to trespassing or littering complaints, they are proactively checking in on unhoused community members.

“I have to balance my response,” Officer Weed says. “I have to respond to valid quality of life and property issues while still serving the needs of the unhoused.”

A Growing Crisis

Homelessness is a growing crisis throughout the country, and Oregon has been hit particularly hard. Federal data reveals that the number of people experiencing homelessness in the state grew nearly 23% between 2020 and 2022.

Asked to explain why the number of people experiencing homelessness has grown in Oregon, some would point to Martin vs. Boise, a U.S. Ninth Circuit Court ruling decided in 2018 stating that community members experiencing homelessness cannot be punished for sleeping on public property in the absence of adequate alternatives. Others would hone in on Measure 110, a first-of-its-kind rule that decriminalizes small amounts of illegal drugs in favor of more robust addiction treatments. And those who work in this field would point to housing prices and market vacancy rates as important drivers of homelessness.

Pandemic restrictions undoubtedly made things worse.

“COVID really did a number on us,” says Robin Schecker, Access Center Coordinator for Open Door HousingWorks. For the last 17 years, Robin has worked at the resource center at 34420 SW TV Highway. Social distancing rules made serving homeless community members more complicated, but the day use center still manages to provide showers, laundry services, meals, and most importantly, links to case managers, services, and permanent housing.

“Our goal is to provide wraparound services that lead to permanent affordable housing and at the same time, meet people where they are at,” shares Emily Valladares, Outreach Program Manager for Open Door HousingWorks.

Making a transition to permanent housing requires many forms of support. Open Door Access partners with other service agencies and mentoring groups. Cricket Wireless provides low-cost cell phones, a vital lifeline for connecting with people living on the street. And while they employ a full team of outreach workers, Open Door HousingWorks also relies heavily on Hillsboro’s CIT officers.

“Collaborating with CIT officers has allowed us a chance to use a trauma-informed approach to avoid escalation and achieve the best outcome for not only our participants but our community members as well,” Valladares says.

Together the partners have logged several successes.

Mateo’s Story

Hillsboro CIT officers met Mateo — whose name has been changed for this article — while making contact with a group of people camping on private property near a sensitive wetland. As always, the officers offered services first — food, socks, a ride to a day center — to the campers. Most declined. But Mateo, who only spoke Spanish, was interested.

Officer Weed connected Valladares, a fluent Spanish speaker, with Mateo. She heard Mateo’s story, learned about his challenges as an undocumented person, and helped find him emergency shelter at a motel. When Valladares last checked, Mateo was helping the hotel’s maintenance department fix rooms. He also had a message for the CIT officers.

“He said, ‘Tell the police I am very grateful because they typically take us out and arrest us and not hear our story,’” Valladares relates.

“Mateo just needed an opportunity,” says Officer Weed of this good outcome. “Sometimes people are not aware of all services available.” The officer measures success one case at a time, stressing that the “goalposts” that mark success are different for each person.

For Mateo, the goal is getting housing. For Dan, the goal is to survive the winter. Making it through the cold, wet winter while experiencing homelessness is difficult. Officer Weed saw a lot of frostbite last season.

Partnerships to Reduce Impact

Hillsboro’s Community Impact Team officers work closely with business owners to reduce impacts to their storefronts and customers.

If the businesses have a “No Trespass contract” order on file, a phone call to the non-emergency line brings a quick response. One such call brings Officer Weed to a tent set up in a veterinarian’s parking lot.

“Hey there, it’s Officer Weed. Do you need any help?”

This time, the tent is empty. Sgt. David Bonn, Community Outreach Supervisor, who also responded to the call, leaves a note explaining camping is not allowed on private property and states that they must move on. The officer also leaves a booklet that lists available services.

Another member of the Hillsboro Police Department — either the other full-time CIT officer, one of the seven code compliance officers, or one of the two, full-time bike officers — will follow up in an hour or so to make sure the spot is clear.

“That signed No Trespass agreement removes a lot of friction,” says Dr. Randall Rabe of Rabe Family Dentistry.

Dr. Rabe’s family-owned business has been in Downtown Hillsboro for 30 years. According to Dr. Rabe, over the last year or two, he and his employees have noticed an uptick in persons experiencing homelessness congregating on and abusing his property, particularly the sheltered picnic area used for employee lunch breaks.

July 4, 2022, is when the camping problem worsened, with tents and derelict cars lining SE 6th Avenue. Employees at Project Homeless Connect, another social services organization that operates a day shelter right next door, also noticed the uptick. The signed No Trespass contract made a huge difference, allowing officers to pre-emptively check the dentist’s property, as well as respond to complaints immediately.

Dr. Rabe is pleased with the outcome. “It’s been like night and day. Overall, there is a lot less garbage and mess. If there is a problem, I know I can call, and a CIT officer will show up and take care of the issue.”

Kim Marshall, Executive Director of Project Homeless Connect, also appreciates the partnership with Hillsboro’s CIT officers.

“It’s been really beautiful for our homeless friends to see us in a positive relationship with the police,” she says, noting the high level of kindness, understanding, and empathy they bring to the job. “It shows that the police are compassionate. That they are not here to arrest anyone.”

Marshall has been working closely with Hillsboro’s Police Department and other community partners to develop new time and place camping rules. These new rules will allow unhoused people to rest on certain public property, while restrictions limit impacts on the surrounding community.

Marshall is optimistic about how the new rules could provide clarity for the people her organization serves. Project Homeless Connect has already logged some success, moving 93 people into housing since the beginning of 2022 because of the voter-approved supportive housing services measure. And Marshall recognizes that not everyone wants to live indoors.

“I think we can end homelessness if you shift your idea about what a home is,” she explains. “For some, it means housing. But others may just want a safe place to park or pitch a tent.”

Through it all, Hillsboro’s CIT officers act as connectors. While Sgt. Bonn hopes to increase the size of the Community Impact Team over the next several years, the group’s mandate will remain to respond to community concerns while treating unhoused community members with dignity, respect, and care.

One more thing won’t change…Officer Weed’s conversational approach.

“I always ask ‘How can I help you today? What do you need?’”

Pictured above: Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (center) with the City of Hillsboro Police Department's Crisis Intervention Team and department leadership.