Housing, mental health: Oregon lawmakers face linked crises

PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon lawmakers will take up a full slate of laws on urgent and polarizing points from homelessness to gun management to medicine when the legislative session begins subsequent week after midterm elections that value Democrats their supermajority however swept in a brand new, progressive governor.

A high precedence is addressing the interconnected crises of homelessness and psychological well being which have seized the state for years. Dozens of latest payments goal sticking factors that make it troublesome present psychological well being and drug therapy to these in want and to construct housing.

Oregon has a number of the highest charges of homelessness and drug dependancy within the nation, federal knowledge exhibits — stemming largely from a essential housing scarcity, rising rents and a lack of psychological well being providers.

A invoice to safe ongoing funding for the brand new nationwide 988 psychological well being hotline ranks excessive on the agenda of the state Home Committee on Behavioral Well being and Well being Care, stated its chair, Rep. Rob Nosse. The invoice proposes taxing cellphone subscribers 50 cents a month with a view to preserve the helpline and guarantee efficient routing of calls. The transfer may increase about $60 million per price range biennium, state analysts estimate.

“A variety of acute psychological well being challenges could be resolved over the cellphone,” Nosse stated. “Individuals simply getting to speak to any person can take their temperature down. So we have to get up that system.”

988, the nation’s first three-digit psychological well being disaster hotline, launched in July. It constructed on the present community that staffed the previous Nationwide Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 1-800-273-8255. When referred to as, a dispatcher connects individuals with educated psychological well being counselors as a substitute of police or paramedics. Within the six months because it launched, the helpline has obtained over 2 million calls, texts and chat messages.

Whereas the federal authorities has poured tons of of thousands and thousands of {dollars} into the undertaking, states are anticipated to take over operation and funding of the road — simply as they do with 911 emergency name providers. Up to now, 5 states — Washington, California, Nevada, Colorado and Virginia — have handed cellphone taxes to fund 988, in keeping with the Nationwide Alliance on Psychological Sickness.

Different payments that will show controversial would make it simpler to pressure sure individuals into psychological well being therapy, echoing a rising debate within the state and nationwide about hospitalizing individuals in opposition to their will. One invoice, for instance, would permit judges to civilly commit somebody for substance use dysfunction if that individual can be decided to have a psychological sickness that makes them unable to look after themselves or harmful to themselves or others.

Within the face of the state’s excessive drug dependancy charges, Republicans have launched a number of payments that would repeal all or elements of Poll Measure 110, which was accepted by voters in 2020 and made Oregon the primary state within the nation to decriminalize arduous medicine.

One of probably the most vital payments launched seeks to facilitate constructing houses by altering planning and land-use guidelines. Oregon is brief 110,000 housing items and must construct greater than a half-million houses over the subsequent 20 years with a view to sustain with demand, officers have estimated.

“We all know we have to double our charge of housing manufacturing to fulfill the necessity proper now,” stated state Rep. Julie Fahey, the Democratic Home Majority Chief.

Democrats, who management the Legislature, have additionally superior gun management payments as a authorized battle performs out within the courts over a narrowly handed, voter-approved measure that will require a allow to buy a firearm and ban high-capacity magazines. They’re set to spar with Republicans, who’ve launched a number of of their very own payments that will loosen gun laws.

One Democratic invoice would outlaw ” ghost weapons,” untraceable firearms and not using a serial quantity that a person can assemble themselves. One other, which has but to be formally launched, would increase the age for getting and possessing a firearm to 21, with exceptions for searching, legislation enforcement and army members. Whereas federal legislation units the minimal age to purchase a handgun as 21, it permits for individuals 18 or older to purchase a rifle or a shotgun.

Concerning voting rights — an more and more contentious problem following former President Donald Trump’s false claims that voter fraud value him reelection in 2020 — a invoice has been launched that will routinely register individuals on Oregon’s Medicaid plan to vote, increasing on the state’s Motor Voter legislation. That first-in-the-nation legislation, which took impact in 2016, routinely registers individuals who renew or apply for a driver’s license or ID card on the DMV. Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan stated the invoice may add about 170,000 individuals to the voter rolls.

Oregon’s Motor Voter legislation and vote-by-mail system have been credited for enhancing participation in elections the state. It had the best turnout charge nationally within the November midterms, with 61.5% of eligible voters casting a poll.

Moreover, Home Democrats say they plan to introduce a invoice that will shield individuals in Oregon from legal and civil legal responsibility for receiving or offering an abortion. The transfer would add Oregon to the checklist of states which have taken steps to defend individuals from lawsuits in states the place abortion has been banned or severely restricted following the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. Republicans, in the meantime, have launched a invoice that will ban abortion after 15 weeks besides in a medical emergency. Abortion is at the moment authorized in Oregon in any respect levels of being pregnant.

Democrats nonetheless management each chambers of the Legislature however misplaced their three-fifths supermajority in November’s election, which means they are going to want some Republican help to boost income by means of taxes.

Claire Rush is a corps member for the Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative.