Clackamas County Board approves Milwaukie 'Stabilization Center' plan for mental health care

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The Clackamas County Board of Commissioners this week approved a plan for a new Stabilization Center located in Milwaukie that will be focused on mental health and set to open more than a year from now.

The Clackamas County Stabilization Center will be located at the former Women's Center at 9200 SE McBrod Ave. and is part of the county's larger effort of establishing a "recovery-oriented system of care," officials said.

“There has historically been a disinvestment in mental health and addiction treatment. But in Clackamas County we are doing things differently, we are making this county safe and healthy for everyone who lives here,” Commissioner Ben West said in a statement. “We are committed to getting people the care they deserve.”

The center will aim to offer behavioral health stabilization and short-term care, including mental health, well-being and addiction services, officials said. It is being developed in partnership between Clackamas County and the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office.

Service providers for the Stabilization Center will be selected in the fall, with renovations to the building set to begin by the end of the year. The plan is to open the center by the fall of 2025.

KOIN 6 News reached out to Clackamas County to ask whether the center is designed to have sobering beds for intoxicated people or serve as a deflection center as part of HB 4002, as an alternative to jail for those caught with small amounts of drugs. A county spokesperson said the center is not designed for either of those things.

"[T]his stabilization center is primarily focused on mental health and is not a sobering center. The stabilization center is not related to the HB 4002 deflection program," the Clackamas County spokesperson said in an email. "However, the stabilization center is part of Clackamas County commitment to focus on recovery through a recovery-oriented system of care."

The center is part of a larger focus on recovery-centered capital projects that include the addiction-focused recovery center in Clackamas, the Caring Place resource center in Oregon City focused on getting people out of homelessness, the forthcoming transitional housing village in Clackamas, recovery-oriented scattered site homes and housing services-focused access centers in Estacada and Molalla that are still in the early stages.

According to a press release about the new Clackamas Stabilization Center, "Capital funding includes $4 million approved by the Oregon Legislature in March, and additional funding from Trillium Community Health Plan. Health Share of Oregon and the regional Supportive Housing Services Measures will fund ongoing operations."

In the neighboring Multnomah County, the Board of Commissioners is still hashing out the details of a new deflection center planned for Southeast Sandy Boulevard in Portland. That center will be related to HB 4002, with the facility opening Sept. 1, when the law takes effect. The plan doesn't include sobering beds until mid-2025 but city leaders like Portland Police Chief Bob Day are urgently asking the county to create them sooner.