Wildflower Alliance, a peer-recovery organization that runs a respite center in Massachusetts. Beaver Mountain Respite will follow Wildflower’s “Peer Respite Handbook: A Guide to Understanding, Building and Supporting Peer Respites.”

A controversial nonprofit is opening a grant-funded peer-run respite program in Jackson County despite the objections of local leaders who contacted state authorities and got the Oregon Health Authority to take a closer look at the organization.

In November, Stabbin Wagon, a Medford-based harm-reduction service, signed a $1.5 million contract with the Health Authority to establish Mountain Beaver Respite, a non-clinical low-barrier respite center for adults in psychiatric crisis, such as emotional extremis and trauma response. The contract went into effect Nov. 9, about a year after the nonprofit learned the state intended to back its project.

In that period — and especially over the summer while grant negotiations were underway — Medford city officials and influential community members took their concerns to the Health Authority, Gov. Tina Kotek’s office and Southern Oregon legislators, according to emails and documents obtained by the Rogue Valley Times through public records requests.

The criticism and complaints, coupled with the legal troubles of Stabbin Wagon employees, caused the Health Authority to seek additional assurances that the nonprofit could responsibly manage the peer respite grant, as well as a Measure 110 grant for ongoing harm-reduction work, records show.

The messages offer a view into the city’s fraught feelings toward Stabbin Wagon at a time when issues that both entities confront — unsheltered homelessness and record drug overdoses and deaths among vulnerable community members — have become highly visible.

In the nonprofit’s work, which involves handing out free supplies for safer drug use and overdose prevention, Stabbin Wagon has promoted a range of views and social justice causes, particularly on the subject of policing. Anti-law enforcement rhetoric and imagery — including the acronym ACAB (All Cops Are Bastards) — have appeared on Stabbin Wagon merchandise and permeate its social media, which often depicts officers as pigs and clowns. The nonprofit’s voicemail greeting concludes: “Stay safe and remember: Don’t talk to cops.”

When word got out in March that the Health Authority would fund Stabbin Wagon’s peer respite center, employees in local government, law enforcement and addiction treatment were stunned, emails from March and April compiled by a third party and given to the Times show.

Medford City Manager Brian Sjothun, for example, called Stabbin Wagon’s peer respite grant “a disaster waiting to happen” and asked the city’s lobbyist, Cindy Robert, owner of Rainmakers Government Strategies, to contact the Health Authority. Robert told Sjothun, “I do not know how you go about undoing” and told Yoni Kahn, chief of staff to former OHA director James Schroeder, that the grant “has other non-profits in the area pretty upset.”

More recent emails from mid-July through mid-September show a broader effort, through multiple channels, to draw the state’s attention to Stabbin Wagon’s polarizing reputation and cast doubt on the nonprofit’s fitness for funding.

Stabbin Wagon’s peer respite grant comes courtesy of HB 2980, a 2021 law that earmarked $6 million for the Health Authority to fund four peer respite centers: one in the Portland metro area, another on the coast, a third in Central and Eastern Oregon, and a fourth in Southern Oregon, the bill says. Eleven organizations applied, six were deemed non-responsive and disqualified, five made it to the evaluation stage — where Stabbin Wagon scored highest — and three were initially selected for funding.

Stabbin Wagon is now one of two recipients, along with Salem’s Project ABLE. The third grant, for Black Mental Health Oregon, was paused over the summer and finally cancelled late last year due to a state Department of Justice investigation into the nonprofit’s finances and related matters, records show.

Mountain Beaver Respite will offer guests stays of up to two weeks in a “homelike” environment where they can take time to begin feeling well again. A staff of trained “peers” who have faced similar mental health struggles and know the treatment terrain will be on hand 24/7 for guests, who can come and go at will. The low-barrier center is meant to be a safe setting for people — up to six at a time — at risk of hospitalization, but who don’t yet need, or would prefer not to undergo, that kind of intervention. Stabbin Wagon has called the program a “non-clinical alternative” to these often costlier options.

Separately, OHA’s Measure 110 Oversight and Accountability Council has approved a second round of grant funding for Stabbin Wagon’s mobile harm-reduction work, bringing the nonprofit’s total Measure 110 grant funds to $1,164,041.35.

‘This is outrageous’

A July 20 story by The Lund Report about the peer respite grants questioned the viability of Stabbin Wagon and Black Mental Health Oregon. It also highlighted the combative posture of Stabbin Wagon’s director and founder, Melissa Jones.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Jones starting taking a cart of harm-reduction kits — including clean syringes — to unsheltered people, notably in Medford’s Hawthorne Park. Her service earned her the nickname the “stabbin wagon lady,” according to a KTVL News 10 story. Stabbin Wagon incorporated as a nonprofit in 2021 and now operates out of a white cargo van that rotates among sites in the Rogue Valley.

Jones has condemned the city’s policies toward homelessness; Medford’s limitations on tent use and sweeps of encampments have drawn her ire. In September 2020, Jones was among the people arrested for trespassing when the city closed Hawthorne Park and evicted individuals camping and living there. The site had turned into a sprawling encampment after the Almeda Fire that month.

Her online and in-person conduct toward critics and ideological adversaries — whether the person is an elected official, agency head or private citizen — has made sources reluctant to speak on the record about her organization.

The Times’ attempts by phone and email to obtain a comment from Jones were unsuccessful.

Officials at the city and Medford Police Department became aware of the Lund Report’s Stabbin Wagon coverage when a Times reporter, who had been inquiring about the nonprofit for a possible story, sent them a link. The reporter ultimately didn’t write an article, but, unbeknownst to her, the emails she sent touched off a flurry of messages.

Sjothun asked Robert to try to get him a meeting with the Health Authority about Jones’ $1.5 million grant. “This is outrageous that she is getting this money,” Sjothun wrote.

Robert resumed a conversation with Kristen Donheffner, the Health Authority’s Measure 110 strategy and engagement manager. “Medford City Manager Brian Sjothun would like to talk to someone at OHA who has some connection to decision-making on these grants,” Robert said. “Can you help point me in the right direction?”

A few days later, Robert was in touch with Taylor Smiley Wolfe, housing and homelessness initiative director at the office of Gov. Tina Kotek. Robert told her, “The City of Medford (is) really concerned about this grant money going to Melissa Jones and Stabbin Wagon — we have been trying to get something done about it since March … Such a terrible use of taxpayer dollars and as you can see by the Lund Report, it is starting to get some notice.”

Smiley Wolfe referred Robert to Rachel Currans-Henry, the governor’s health and human services adviser.

Medford police’s Lt. Geoff Kirkpatrick sent the Lund Report link to Sgt. Jason Antley, who passed it along to Travis Snyder, managing partner and CEO of Precision Electric. Snyder is on the board of the Chamber of Commerce of Medford & Jackson County, which interacts with the Southern Oregon legislative delegation.

“Very interesting,” Snyder told Antley. “Let me get with the delegation and see what we can do about shutting (Jones) down.”

‘(O)ur work is not done’

On Aug. 3, Medford police arrested Jones and a Stabbin Wagon associate, Samantha Strong, during an “HIV Testing Party” the nonprofit was hosting at Vogel Plaza in downtown, the Times reported. Both face misdemeanor charges in Medford Municipal Court of interfering with an officer and harassment that allegedly occurred when police arrived to take a runaway female juvenile into protective custody.

Jones faces additional misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. They have pleaded not guilty; pretrial conferences are scheduled for later this month. An exclusion order temporarily banned them from part of downtown. Strong now works for Mountain Beaver Respite.

The day after their arrests, Sjothun shared with Robert the police department’s watch commander report that details the incident. “And this person is getting $1.5 million from the state,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, Sjothun and Deputy City Manager Kelly Madding were contacting legislators.

In late July, Sjothun shared the Lund Report story with state Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland. “We’re still awaiting a call from OHA to discuss our concerns and have been trying to speak with someone in authority for over a month,” Sjothun wrote.

He later shared with the senator the watch commander report. “This is the type of actions she takes towards our law enforcement personnel, but this time it crossed the line,” Sjothun wrote. “It’s hard to believe that this individual and her organization should receive $1.5 million of taxpayer funds for a program she has no experience in providing.”

With the city manager’s permission, Robert forwarded Golden her exchanges with the Health Authority and the governor’s office; these also included the watch commander report. She sent them to Golden’s personal email.

Madding also had conversations about Stabbin Wagon with state Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, emails show. The representative told Madding: “I wanted you to know that I’ve been in contact with the state with my concerns regarding the new peer contract with Stabbin Wagon.” They arranged a time to talk about Marsh’s conversations with the Health Authority.

In early September, Snyder, of Precision Electric and the Chamber, received an email from state Rep. Emily McIntire, R-Eagle Point. She and fellow Southern Oregon state Rep. Kim Wallan, R-Medford, had received written responses to questions about Stabbin’s Wagon’s peer respite and Measure 110 grants from an OHA behavioral health senior policy analyst.

McIntire had asked how the Health Authority would ensure Stabbin Wagon complies with its contracts — that the nonprofit gives accurate information in its quarterly reports, that its purchase of a vehicle is legitimate, that it doesn’t commit fraud.

Snyder passed along the information to Sgt. Antley, saying, “We finally got some answers to the (Melissa) Jones Grant. … our work is not done but at least we have OHA on notice that we are asking questions.”

The Times’ attempts to reach Snyder were unsuccessful.

‘(S)ignificant misconceptions’

It is unclear where these discussions went and how many took place by phone, in person or virtually. The Times did not receive all of the city’s correspondences about Stabbin Wagon from this time frame; many contained confidential information and were left out of the batch.

In a July 31 email, a Health Authority “innovator agent” based in Southern Oregon answered questions for the city, Jackson County Health & Human Services and Jackson Care Connect CCO representatives about Stabbin Wagon’s grant metrics; whether drug use will be allowed and paraphernalia handed out at the respite center (“No,” the agent wrote); and how OHA will help the nonprofit with technical assistance and support, emails show.

Sjothun told the Times in September that the city has been seeking additional information on the peer respite program to understand, given the nonprofit’s lack of experience in mental health treatment, how Stabbin Wagon plans to serve its clients.

He said in a statement, “Our outreach to the OHA has yielded no response to our request for information, either directly from our staff or through our lobbyist.”

Jones, however, received a letter from the Health Authority dated Aug. 15:

“Over the last few weeks the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) has received communications from various individuals and organizations expressing concerns about your organization and its ability to engage with the community, particularly around the peer respite support grant.

“In addition, it has come to our attention that you are facing some legal issues. OHA is concerned that the combination of these matters may have a bearing on the (organization’s) ability to conduct grant activities, given your position as executive director of Stabbin’ Wagon.

“OHA must, as a steward of public funds, perform its due diligence to ensure that its grantees are able to fulfill their duties as outlined in grant agreements.”

Signed by Jackie Fabrick, the agency’s behavioral health deputy director, the letter notes that Jones is in full compliance for Stabbin Wagon’s Measure 110 grant for harm-reduction services. That said: “Negotiations continue regarding the peer respite support grant … and the grant agreement has not been executed.”

The letter asks for assurances that Stabbin Wagon has the “staff, capacity, and organizational structure” to continue harm-reduction work and eventually to provide peer respite supports at Mountain Beaver House — and, in addition, that the nonprofit has the “community support necessary to successfully provide” this new service.

Jones responded by deferring to Stabbin Wagon’s Washington state-based lawyer, Alicia LeDuc Montgomery, who wrote a letter reassuring the OHA on both counts.

On Sept. 11, Shannon O’Fallon, the OHA’s lead counsel, let Montgomery know that Stabbin Wagon’s grant agreement would be updated.

Jones had already signed a contract, but revisions were needed, O’Fallon wrote, to, “among other things, incorporate the budget, make the grant requirements clearer, and to change the distributions so that less money is being provided up front.”

Montgomery thanked O’Fallon. “Also, Shannon and OHA team,” she added, “we are aware there has been outreach to OHA regarding the peer respite grant, particularly stemming from communications from the Medford Chief of Police, the Medford City Manager’s lobbyist, a few of their healthcare contacts, and others.”

Montgomery also brought up a video, from a local Facebook police scanner group, that finds fault with Stabbin Wagon’s harm-reduction operation and its impact on the community, echoes the city’s concerns about the group’s lack of qualifications, urges viewers to email the Health Authority, “create a bit of outrage” around the organization’s grants, and demand that the state audit the nonprofit.

Montgomery told the OHA: “From what I have seen of the City and MPD’s communications and the content posted to social media, there appear to be significant misconceptions and misrepresentations about the nature of the peer respite program and Stabbin’ Wagon’s services and programs in general.”

The attorney sent evidence preservation notices in anticipation of a possible lawsuit resulting from the city’s involvement in the peer respite grant process. Sjothun and the city of Medford; police Chief Justin Ivens, Deputy Chief Trevor Arnold, Lt. Kirkpatrick and the Medford Police Department; Mayor Randy Sparacino and the Medford City Council; and Robert and Rainmakers are all named.

In an interview, Montgomery, who has a civil rights focus, emphasized the point she made when the city and police department’s earlier emails were released: “The records, again, confirm the Medford Police Department is collaborating with political entities and government entities to shut down Stabbin Wagon’s operation and harm Stabbin Wagon as a whole.”

A ‘positive effect’

As of Thursday, a suit had not been filed or a tort claim received, according to City Attorney Eric Mitton, who is fielding all Stabbin Wagon-related press inquiries for the city.

Mitton said in a statement: “City staff expressing opinions about a State grant award or asking State officials questions about that State grant award is not uncommon. It is routine and appropriate for inquiries to be made to public entities like the State of Oregon about how that public entity is allocating its resources, just as the City of Medford routinely receives inquiries and opinions from citizens and entities about the City’s grant allocations and other expenditures.

“Peer respite programs are (a) new and untested type of residential treatment in Oregon. When there is a shortage of State funding for existing programs in Oregon, including inpatient and outpatient drug treatment and mental health treatment, it was surprising to see the State allocate roughly $1.5 million to a new, untested model for the area. It was also surprising to see the grant awarded to a nonprofit that provides an entirely different service (distribution of harm-reduction supplies), where the grant recipient would not be using existing staff, existing facilities or existing institutional knowledge to carry out the grant-funded activity.

“This is particularly a concern for peer respite centers, which are residential programs for individuals in crisis, where any issues with how a facility is run can pose safety problems for both clients and staff, and could create impacts for public safety agencies. These are some of the factors that raise questions about the State’s grant award.”

Mitton noted, “The questions and concerns raised by the City appear to have had a positive effect on the State’s new program.”

He pointed to a statement from Tim Heider, a spokesperson for the Health Authority. In September, Heider said his agency was “in the process of revising the peer respite grant agreement template to ensure there are clear deliverables and oversight …

“Once the grant agreement is fully executed we will work closely with Stabbin Wagon to support and monitor implementation goals,” Heider continued. “Please note that this grantee will be subject to regular oversight to ensure they are meeting terms and conditions of their grant agreement, including project deliverables.”

Mitton said the city appreciates that the state “recognized a need to revise its peer respite grant agreement template and ensure that grant recipients in this unprecedented program have clear deliverables and oversight. The City hopes that the State follows through in that commitment so that the State’s dedication of taxpayer dollars to this new program has the intended positive benefit on Oregon communities.”

A letter of support for Stabbin Wagon’s grant proposal came from Rachel Richmond, a street nurse and clinical assistant professor at the Ashland campus of the Oregon Health and Science University School of Nursing. Richmond did not respond to requests for comment.

In her letter, however, she wrote: “I know Melissa through the harm reduction work she does in Medford, where she is a trusted and confidential source for harm reduction supplies for many of our community members. I serve the unhoused community in Medford as a street nurse and see firsthand the desperate need for a place of respite in our community.

“To be able to walk (into) a building and feel welcome, feel like you can relax and provide or be given support by your peers, is a feeling that can be hard to come by when you live on the streets. Melissa has the work ethic and drive along with the trust of her community members.”

Stabbin Wagon’s $1.5 million Oregon Health Authority grant will cover Mountain Beaver Respite’s first two years, including the program’s set up and operation, according to the budget.

The program has started receiving startup funds. The peer-respite team does not yet have a location, according to Ira Clarke, Mountain Beaver’s outreach coordinator.

The contract requires Mountain Beaver to submit quarterly reports that track numbers of guests, average length of stays, demographic data, “(g)rievances and safety concerns of guests and staff,” and include summaries of the respite’s community-engagement efforts, guest feedback and “any additional feedback or narratives highlighting successes, recovery, and resilience of residents.”

Mountain Beaver is covered by Stabbin Wagon’s nonprofit status but will operate independently from the mobile harm-reduction service; there will be some administrative overlap, but all programming staff are separate, according to Clarke.

The contract expires June 30, 2025, and could be extended. The Health Authority can cancel the agreement at its discretion and for cause if Mountain Beaver fails to satisfy the terms.

Dr. Kerri Hecox, medical director at Oasis Center of the Rogue Valley, works across the street from Hawthorne Park, where the “stabbin wagon” regularly operates. She provides medication-assisted treatment, a form of harm reduction that helps her drug-addicted patients control their opioid cravings.

The city, she said, has valid concerns about the peer respite project — and especially about Stabbin Wagon’s avowedly anti-police stance.

Hecox said she’s exasperated by the way recent conversations around harm reduction get wedged into a “black-and-white” narrative — “like, there’s an oppressor and there’s the oppressed, and the oppressors are the police and government agencies, and the oppressed are people who are being discriminated against because of their drug use, when the reality is, is it’s a lot more complicated than that.”

Much of the unease around Stabbin Wagon stems from its “fighting-the-oppressor mentality,” Hecox said.

Jones makes it known that her organization does not work with police and is critical of nonprofits and providers that do.

She told The Lund Report: “I think some police, they’re not bad people, right? … But their job is in a bad system. I’m not anti-cop, I’m pro-Black-people-being-alive. I’m not anti-cop, I’m pro-people-in-mental-health-crisis-staying-alive.” She suggested to the publication that a Stabbin Wagon peer respite center might never call the police.

Hecox expects that some Mountain Beaver guests will show up in states — such as psychosis, possibly drug-induced — or act in ways that would lead most people to call 911.

“That’s just what society does, right?” Hecox said. “You see someone who is having behaviors that you think are concerning or might be threatening, you’re going to call the police.”

If an Oasis patient seems mentally unwell, but isn’t violent, Hecox relies on officers with Medford Police Department’s Livability Team, as well as Options for Southern Oregon, a nonprofit that treats mental health and substance use and does community outreach with the team.

“There’s a system in place for initial contact with people, but this peer respite that Stabbin Wagon is setting up has expressly said they won’t work with it,” she said. “So that’s problematic.”

In October, Clarke published a piece for Mad in America — a webzine critical of the “drug-based paradigm of care” — that recounted the peer respite’s journey and recent roadblocks. Where law enforcement is concerned, Clarke wrote:

“The police cannot and will not be a part of how people will come to stay at the respite — guests will need to call us themselves and make a decision based in self-determination to stay. Eligibility will be based on if someone is in crisis, not on sobriety, medication compliance, or if they are refraining from self-harming.”

Clarke concluded the piece: “Funding a grassroots crisis response project for and by psychiatric survivors shouldn’t be a radical concept. Funding alternatives to the prison system” — which Clarke says “includes forced psychiatric practices and incarceration” — “that let people decide for themselves how to navigate their crisis shouldn’t be a radical concept.”

Mountain Beaver Respite is collaborating with the Wildflower Alliance, a peer-recovery organization that runs a respite center in Massachusetts. Wildflower will train Mountain Beaver staff and continue to offer assistance, according to the grant proposal.

The respite will follow Wildflower’s “Peer Respite Handbook: A Guide to Understanding, Building and Supporting Peer Respites,” the proposal says.

The handbook’s Peer Respite Charter states: “Avoiding the use of force (calling emergency services or police against someone’s will, etc.) is a priority, and there’s a process in place for internal review and learning should force ever be used.”

Hecox said, “The handbook is never how things play out in the real world, you know?”

She echoed a worry expressed by other agencies, that the lack of requirement for guests to remain sober, and their ability to leave the respite at any time, will lead to drug use at the facility regardless of the rules.

Hecox’s organization runs into this problem at apartments Oasis recently purchased and are managed by OnTrack Rogue Valley, another addiction treatment provider. The dwellings are for guests waiting for a treatment bed. In theory, guests can’t use drugs on the property, but needles and foils still turn up.

“You can say, ‘Oh, you’re not supposed to use in here,’” she said. But people in addiction, focused on their immediate needs, don’t think about the long-term consequences, she said. “They’re going to be like, ‘Oh, no one’s going to know if I use in here.’”

Hecox said she worries that Stabbin Wagon’s peer respite will see similar problems but without the clinical supports for guests or a clear path to help them move into recovery.

Sommer Wolcott, OnTrack’s executive director, said, “Oregon’s addition of mental health peer-run crisis respite centers is really exciting for the overall continuum of services that Oregon’s offering, and the program model is well supported by research.”

Some studies indicate the peer respite model can be associated with improvements in client self-esteem, decreases in hospitalization rates and lower medical expenditures.

A 2021 World Health Organization document, “Guidance on community mental health services: Promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches,” says: “Peer support is reported to be a central pillar in many peoples’ recovery. It is based on the important premise that the meaning of recovery can be different for everyone and that people can benefit tremendously from the sharing of experiences, being listened to and respected, being supported to find meaning in their experiences and a path to recovery that works for them, ultimately enabling them to lead a fulfilling and satisfying life.”

Folk Time, a Portland-area nonprofit that offers peer support services, advocated for HB 2980, the 2021 state law that allocated $6 million for the Health Authority to fund four peer respite centers. Its executive director, Peter Starkey, was then running a peer respite in New Hampshire and provided data to help get the bill through the Oregon Legislature.

Peer respites, Starkey said, are “an invaluable asset to the system.”

Oregon’s psychiatric system is overwhelmed, the waitlist long, Starkey said. The problem spills into emergency departments, where patients meet doctors trained in trauma medicine rather than mental health. If a bed or a psychiatric emergency room is unavailable, patients may be waiting a long time.

“Being able to have respite — where there’s another option for people to go who are in psychiatric distress — it’s so valuable, because it’s another option,” Starkey said, “and it’s also an option that allows for people to remain in the community — it’s voluntary — and the ability for people to create connections that they may not have had before with others that are in the program, with others that have gone through the program.”

Starkey said he was familiar with Stabbin Wagon only through media reports. He said that many peer respite centers have been founded by grassroots organizations, some that “push the needle a little bit.”

From his own nonprofit work, he knows what it’s like to sit across the table from someone “who violently disagrees with my organization, or I violently disagree with what they do,” Starkey said, “but being able to find common ground — I hope that there’s an opportunity for that within the Southern Oregon community.”

He added: “We all need more when it comes to mental health and behavioral health.”