Gov. Tina Kotek answers questions Friday from members of the media at Jackson County Health & Human Services in Medford.

Gov. Tina Kotek said Friday in Medford that Jackson County is holding up its end of the bargain when it comes to her multimillion dollar homelessness emergency order, and that Measure 110 needs “to make some corrections,” but she stopped short of calling for a repeal of the state’s drug decriminalization law.

During a press conference in Medford as part of Kotek’s statewide “One Oregon Listening Tour,” the governor said cities in Jackson County are rising to the challenge of her homelessness emergency order and that she wants to keep supporting them at the state level.

“I’ve been impressed with the community planning that’s happening in Jackson County,” Kotek said. 

The emergency order, which culminated with $80 million in emergency aid in seven regions across the state, was among Kotek’s first actions as governor. The $8.8 million in emergency aid that went to Jackson County came with tall orders to rehouse 133 households and add 67 new shelter beds before Jan. 10.

Kotek said she believes the county is on target to meet the goal.

“I do think we’re on track to meet them,” Kotek said, adding that she wants to keep the momentum going.

“My commitment to the community here is, keep doing the work that you’re doing,” Kotek said. “We have to make sure that when you stand up new shelter capacity that it’s going to be there a year from now.”

Kotek said “there will be ongoing money” for shelter services propped up by the emergency funding this year.

“If you have set up new capacity, we are going to support you,” Kotek said.

Pull Quote

“We don’t get ourselves out of this challenge without more housing.”

— Gov. Tina Kotek

Her next challenge, Kotek said, is housing. The topic came up during her meetings with county commissioners and Jackson County mayors Friday. She said housing will be her priority in the February legislative session.

“The goal is not to build more shelters,” Kotek said. “The goal is to provide a place where people can get safe and stable so they can get into housing, which means we need to build more housing. We don’t get ourselves out of this challenge without more housing.”

Kotek also discussed with local leaders ways her office can better support local governments.

“One of the challenges right now is we are asking local governments — cities and counties — to do a lot,” Kotek said. “How can I as governor be a good partner with local leaders?”

Her tour Friday also included a roundtable with local mental and behavioral health professionals at the Jackson County Health and Human Services building in downtown Medford. She said she saw “some innovative things being done here around crisis response,” and said she was impressed by efforts to reach youths with behavioral health struggles in schools.

“I think Jackson County should be very impressed with the work that is being done on behavioral health,” Kotek said. “We have a lot of people in need, and I think they’re doing a very good job addressing some specific needs in our community.”

Salvaging Measure 110

Kotek described ways Measure 110 can be salvaged, while “staying the course on what has been passed.”

Kotek said her top priority is ensuring that funding goes to treatment program availability allowing people to break the cycle of addiction. Since the law’s passage in 2020, the bulk of funding has gone to harm-reduction programs such as naloxone giveaways and needle exchanges.

“My number one goal is to make sure the Measure 110 dollars are actually resulting in more help for those individuals and more treatment,” Kotek said. “We have work to do there.”

Pull Quote

“Oregonians need to understand, this is organized crime coming into Oregon to put fentanyl on the streets that’s poisoning our communities and killing our kids.”

— Gov. Tina Kotek

She acknowledged that “we need to make some corrections” regarding public use of hard drugs such as fentanyl and methamphetamine under the drug decriminalization law.

“That is a public safety issue,” Kotek said. “I think we need to make it very clear that we should not have that on our streets.”

She also wants to make it easier for law enforcement to go after those who selling narcotics, and is working on giving Oregon State Police more drug enforcement resources “from Portland to the border.” 

“Oregonians need to understand, this is organized crime coming into Oregon to put fentanyl on the streets that’s poisoning our communities and killing our kids,” Kotek said.

Kotek believes that drug enforcement and decriminalization are not mutually exclusive.

“This is a public health crisis for people with addiction, and it’s a safety issue,” Kotek said. “We can work on both.”