Editorial: A year of standing still

end of year

2022 saw a new record for homicides in Portland, little change in the homelessness crisis and steep declines in learning loss, the editorial board writes. But new leadership, including the election of Tina Kotek as the next governor, are reason to have hope for a more productive 2023, the editorial board writes.

As much as we needed solutions, 2022 didn’t provide very many of them. Homicides in Portland surpassed last year’s record weeks ago. The dire shortage of mental health and drug addiction services continues to ripple through our communities, sending people needing treatment to emergency rooms, through the criminal justice system and onto the streets instead. Meanwhile Oregon’s years-long housing crisis shows no sign of abating, with rents climbing and thousands of people camping outside – a testament to how poorly this “crisis” has been met with action.

The year is ending, and we seem stuck in the same place where we started.

While the crises of 2022 will be the crises of 2023, the stage is set for change, thanks in large part to last November’s election. Oregonians will see a new governor, Multnomah County residents will get a new county chair and Portlanders, who apparently reached their breaking point this year, will be preparing for a radical overhaul of city government that will take effect in two years.

But before looking ahead to 2023 – and we will release our annual list of priorities for the year next month – it’s worth recounting the year’s developments on key issues.

Housing and homelessness: The race for governor, in which the three main candidates highlighted this topic over all others, reflects the broad consensus that solving the housing crisis is Oregon’s number one need. Unfortunately, that’s where consensus ends. In Portland, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s proposal to create large sites for homeless campers as part of a multi-pronged initiative was met with something just north of contempt by outgoing Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury. In fact, their continued squabbling and poor collaboration, along with Gov. Kate Brown’s indifference, is a big reason to cheer the change in leadership. Meanwhile, despite hundreds of millions of dollars going to rent assistance and other programs in the Portland metro area, the continuing shortage of housing ensures the same forces driving people into homelessness will persist.

A statewide rent control law passed 2019 has come under fire for allowing rent hikes as high as 14.6% next year due to surging inflation. The real-life implications of the law show once again, that increasing the housing supply is the best way to tamp down rent. And Portlanders have increasingly shown their frustration over government’s handling of homelessness. Polls show their support for using more of the money earmarked for homelessness initiatives to go to increasing temporary shelters and banning unsanctioned camping.

Behavioral and mental health: It seemed like a good problem to have: How should the state spend some $300 million in marijuana tax revenue earmarked for drug treatment and recovery services? Only once again, a state agency could not meet deadlines or expectations in yet another crisis. The Oregon Health Authority’s painfully slow process for reviewing grant applications delayed distribution of funds for as many as nine months later than planned.

While the state Legislature has authorized a massive investment to build out our behavioral health system and accompanying workforce, the spending is not fast enough to counter the severe labor shortages and lack of programs that are wreaking havoc beyond the health system. It’s not just long waitlists for openings at residential treatment facilities, but the cascading effects that untreated mental illness or addiction have throughout the community. The state’s psychiatric hospital is at or near capacity, primarily with patients who require treatment to face criminal charges. A federal judge’s order this year limiting those stays means many are being discharged into communities that lack facilities to serve them. Many are landing in local hospitals that can’t offer the specialized care they need. And others end up on the streets or in jail after arrests for various crimes, starting the cycle all over again.

Public safety: For the second year in a row, Portland has broken its homicide record, and it only needed 11 months to do so. As of Friday morning, the city recorded 100 homicides. Unfortunately, we have yet to see an appreciable change in the trajectory despite millions in grants to community groups for prevention and intervention initiatives and the deployment of a dedicated police unit to focus on gun violence. It’s unclear what additional strategies the city is looking to deploy, and the forced resignation of the director of Portland’s violence prevention office only adds to the sense of disarray.

With recent shootings near two Portland high schools, Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell has broached the topic of resuming the school resource officer program. The move – along with the earlier launch of the dedicated gun-violence unit – would mark a sharp reversal from the partial defunding of police that City Council adopted in 2020.

Public safety, however, is more than record homicides. Record traffic deaths, a spike in property crime, open drug dealing, thefts, worker safety concerns and long waits on hold for callers to 911 have contributed to deep frustration among Portlanders that the city is moving in the wrong direction. While Wheeler championed more funding to cover both officers and non-police personnel, short-staffing issues – and the problems that stem from a lack of police – persist.

Education: This past year gave us a clearer view of just how much remote learning in 2020 and 2021 hurt Oregon students. Not only did standardized test scores plummet, but a national analysis found Oregon students sustained steeper learning losses than much of the rest of the country – an average of 80% of a grade level behind in math and two thirds of a grade level in reading. Yet districts have been slow to invest in intensive tutoring or similar research-backed interventions despite generous federal funds to help students catch up.

At the same time, a report by the state department of education recommends doing away with long-standing diploma requirements that call for students to demonstrate proficiency in key areas through a standardized test or work samples. And despite an infusion of funds to support free preschool, labor shortages and administrative mistakes have hampered the state’s ability to serve more families.

Leadership: There’s no element more important for Oregon’s success in navigating crisis, change or everyday challenges than leadership. Voters answered the call by electing former House Speaker Tina Kotek as Oregon’s next governor. Smart, effective and accountability-minded, Kotek will be an engaged executive who takes state government failures personally.

Even before officially taking office, she is reaching out beyond her base, pledging partnership with business leaders to keep Oregon competitive and broadening her perspective with a listening tour of Oregon’s 36 counties. While critics are understandably skeptical that the progressive Democrat will go to bat for rural Oregon as much as she will for Portland, her early actions suggest she is embracing the responsibility to take a statewide view.

Locally, Wheeler has stepped up on homelessness, finding his footing after a couple years of lackluster leadership. His office’s plan for creating large sites with dedicated facilities and services for homeless campers is one step in a broader initiative to increase outreach, encourage development of more affordable housing and eventually ban unsanctioned camping. While his plan is not the sole solution to homelessness, it’s a timely response that addresses the most urgent needs.

In fact, with the stated commitments of Multnomah County Chair-elect Jessica Vega Pederson and Gov.-elect Kotek to work collaboratively with Wheeler, 2022 ends with reason to hope. In a year that showed too little progress on too many fronts, the change in leadership may be the most significant accomplishment of the year. Voters did that. Elected leaders need to take it from here.

-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board


      
Oregonian editorials
Editorials reflect the collective opinion of The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board, which operates independently of the newsroom. Members of the editorial board are Therese Bottomly, Laura Gunderson, Helen Jung and John Maher.
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