Portland calls CHAT a model program. Why cut it?
City’s proposed budget cuts police, fire and behavioral health response
How are you feeling about the current state of Portland?
This past week, a Providence Park security guard checking on a man in crisis suffered major injuries after being attacked. Earlier this month, a former Multnomah Athletic Club employee drove a vehicle carrying propane tanks and improvised explosive devices into the Club. In March, a woman in severe mental distress caused the fire that severely damaged Elephant’s Delicatessen while searching for food.
In the last several days, we also witnessed multiple people in visible untreated behavioral crises in the Stadiumhood corridor. Too many people like this are cycling through public spaces without enough intercept or stabilization capacity. Portland keeps approaching these systems as if they compete with one another instead of reinforcing one another.
Next week, Portland City Council holds budget hearings on May 18-20 on a proposed budget that reduces police, fire, and behavioral health response resources across the city at the same time those systems are strained.
Among the proposed cuts is CHAT (Community Health Assess and Treat), Portland Fire & Rescue’s 20 person behavioral health co-response team that intervenes in high-acuity crisis calls before they escalate.
CHAT is staffed by nurses, paramedics, and EMTs trained to respond to severe behavioral health and overdose calls in the field. Since launching in 2021, the program has documented more than $16 million in healthcare savings. Despite this, the program still has no stable ongoing funding source. Portland is also simultaneously lobbying the state to expand CHAT while considering these local cuts.¹
The answer isn’t CHAT instead of police or fire. It’s CHAT and police and fire. Weakening any part of this ecosystem just moves the cost somewhere more expensive and more dangerous. All safety budgets should be preserved and strengthened. The Mayor’s proposed cuts to safety budgets tops $32.2 million. Portland residents still have time to weigh in before the vote.
Three things you can do before May 20:
Submit written testimony at portland.gov/budget/join
Sign up for in-person or virtual testimony at the May 18–20 hearings (same link)
Email your councilor to protect safety budget programs
District 4 City Councilors:
Council Vice President Olivia Clark: councilor.clark@portlandoregon.gov
Eric Zimmerman: councilor.zimmerman@portlandoregon.gov
Mitch Green: councilor.green@portlandoregon.gov
Community and Public Safety Committee members:
Steve Novick Chair; Angelita Morillo Vice Chair; with Eric Zimmerman, Loretta Smith and Sameer Kanal
https://www.portland.gov/ogr/documents/2026-state-legislative-agenda
 | A guest post by
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Thank you, Michelle! CHAT is vital to our public safety system. My budget amendment would restore it along with other cuts to our public safety system. See the article in today’s Oregonian. I need 7 votes on Council to get it passed.
Thanks for your support of CHAT. When I ran for Council in 2024, I attended a presentation by CHAT- which I knew nothing about at the time- on what they do, and how they both save lives and save significant funding by responding to low acuity medical emergencies.
They are a significant part of our public safety fabric, and it is important that their funding be restored- along with other proposed cuts to the Fire and Police bureaus.