Derek DeForest was forcefully hospitalized during a mental health crisis, an experience he said was not only traumatic but not helpful. Later, he became active in the psychiatric survivor movement, advocating for the civil rights of those involuntarily committed.
Although DeForest opposes forced hospitalization, he still thinks people in crisis need help. He worked on the East Coast at a peer respite, a short-term, voluntary residential program — usually in a home-like setting — staffed by those with similar experiences.
Research shows the resource can be effective, yet there are fewer than 50 programs in the U.S.
In 2021, the Oregon legislature passed a bill to fund the state’s first peer respites. Legislators and advocates argued peer respites could be a useful resource for those unwilling, or not a good fit, to enter psychiatric hospitalization. Around 30% of adults experience mental illness in Oregon — the highest rate in the country. Lawmakers approved $6 million to start four programs across Oregon.
Five years later, only two centers are open. One of the groups that failed to open a center was Stabbin Wagon, a harm reduction nonprofit. Deforest was part of the group’s efforts.
“When the peer respite funding became available, we were like, ‘Oh, this is actually a way we could constructively contribute,’” DeForest said. “This is something we know is important from our own experiences.”
OHA awarded Stabbin Wagon $1.5 million to open Mountain Beaver House, a planned peer respite in Jackson County.
“And that’s when the trouble started,” DeForest said.
The group hoped to operate in Medford but faced pushback from city officials and residents before OHA even delivered the grant. The uproar was due to Stabbin Wagon’s sometimes controversial work.
The organization runs a harm-reduction van, providing things like clean needles, pipes and overdose reversal medication. The group’s mission is to reduce health risks for drug users, but some residents say the group enables drug use. It’s also been very critical of the police.
“I think really it was just the fact that we were openly saying we're not going to work with the police,” DeForest said.
Emails first reported by Information for Public Use reveal that the Medford Police Department, city officials and other non-profits contacted OHA to protest Stabbin Wagon’s grant.
“Everyone is in shock over this because it was completely under the radar and there has been no communication,” said Lori Paris, former CEO of Addictions Recovery Center, in an email to the police department. “Community partners are concerned for several reasons, but most (are) concerned that the funds will be used to create a safe injection site.”
In another email, former Medford City Manager Brian Sjothun asked who to contact at the state level about the grant. “[T]his is a disaster waiting to happen,” Sjothun said.
Stabbin Wagon sued Medford, arguing opposition from city officials delayed the release of state funding. That lawsuit remains in federal court. City officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Stabbin Wagon eventually shifted efforts to Ashland, hoping a more progressive local government would welcome the project. There, a landlord who believed in their mission and offered a large house in a quiet neighborhood above Lithia Park.
Mountain Beaver House staff planned to use the home as a sanctuary to serve up to four people, offering two-week stays where residents could rest and connect with social services.
Things were looking up, DeForest said — until they weren’t.
The first problem was zoning. The respite bill didn’t include language about zoning, leaving Ashland planning officials to debate whether the program was appropriate in a residential neighborhood.
Mountain Beaver House’s future neighbors also had something to say.
“One of the secrets to small communities like this…is that everyone can't live here,” Ashland-resident Ron Rusnak said during a packed planning meeting. “Only a special few people can live here.”
As opposition mounted, Mountain Beaver House employee Sam Strong began to lose hope.
“For me personally, it wasn't when the city was being the way that they were being,” they said. “It was when the neighbors put together a petition to get us out of the neighborhood.”
DeForest said OHA told him to rent the house and figure out zoning later. Stabbin Wagon's lawyers assured the group that it would win the zoning fight -- eventually.
The group followed OHA’s recommendation, renting and furnishing Mountain Beaver House and onboarding staff.
DeForest said reaching someone at OHA to discuss an extended timeline was hard.
“I mean, it was pretty bizarre,” DeForest said.
Emails show message after message from Mountain Beaver House seeking clarification and direction from OHA. DeForest said the group was “ghosted” and eventually resorted to calling every number in the OHA staff directory.
“I know people who took their own lives waiting for the respite to open,” DeForest said.
OHA did not agree to an interview. In a statement, the agency said it terminated its agreement with Stabbin Wagon last year because the group did not reach key milestones. The agency sent a notice in March asking for a return of grant funds.
DeForest and Strong left the Mountain Beaver House that same month.
Successes and failures
Mountain Beaver House was not alone in facing setbacks. OHA pulled a grant from Portland-based Black Mental Health Oregon after the state Department of Justice opened an investigation into the organization’s financial disclosure filings.
OHA also canceled a grant to The Stronghold in Klamath County. That organization, which focuses on tribal residents, couldn’t bring a property up to code. The Stronghold won a lawsuit against a contractor it blamed for the delay. The judgment included $1.5 million that the group said it lost in OHA funding.
Two groups, Project ABLE in Lincoln County and Folk Time in Portland, did open peer respites. Those organizations also had experience running mental health services.
For Kevin Fitts, a lobbyist with the Oregon Mental Health Consumer Association and author of the state’s peer respite bill, their successes aren’t a coincidence.
“Why in the world did OHA choose contractors that were not even prepared to set up and develop a center?” Fitts said.
Fitts thinks OHA failed to do its due diligence in approving grants.
“They gave them the grants and scored them in a way that I think was irresponsible,” Fitts said.
The agency scored applicants on eight categories. The highest-valued considerations were “overall program description” and “equity and cultural response,” worth 15 points each out of a possible 70 points. No category existed for previous experience or work in a similar field.
Fitts said he believes the peer respite model can save both lives and public funds. He hopes the state will continue to support the program.
“I think the crucial thing will be the success of the two houses that are already set up,” he said.
Peter Starkey, executive director of Folk Time, said their peer respite has been a success. He said around 50 people have stayed at the center over the last year, including many unwilling to use clinical intervention like psychiatric hospitalization.
“We really treat it as a family environment,” Starkey said. ”The vast majority of people that go through are incredibly lonely,”
He’s seen people begin looking for work again after years of unemployment. And some who would regularly stay at a psychiatric hospital have not needed to reenter a facility since staying at the respite.
Folk Time, founded some 40 years ago, is Oregon’s oldest mental health peer agency. But Starkey said it was still a challenge to open a peer respite. He said, in his experience, fighting local zoning codes can be “trauma inducing.”
“It's always a headache for peer respite, specifically because it is counter-cultural,” Starkey said. “There aren't municipalities that are really set up for it.”
He said the difficulties Folk Time faced, while operating in a progressive city, are likely more pronounced in rural areas.
Building community
DeForest said he still wants to help people in mental and emotional distress, but he would be cautious about working with the state again.
“Policymakers in Salem and the Willamette Valley come up with ideas. They may be good ideas,” he said. “And they don't actually care if it works for rural communities, for Southern Oregon.”
DeForest and Strong now volunteer at the Bear Creek Social Center, a new mutual aid project in Talent.
“The love and the community that was built from the Mountain Beaver House didn't end there,” Strong said. “It was spread out into our community and is hyper saturated into the Bear Creek Social Center.”
Unlike peer respite centers, Bear Creek doesn't provide beds or staff. But Deforest and Strong said it offers community — a core part of what they hoped to build at Mountain Beaver House.
