Not enough has been done to help Eugene’s helpless since the loss of CAHOOTS

Many in Eugene are helpless on the streets. The exit of Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets, more often known as CAHOOTS, from Eugene last year worsened a glaring mental health issue.

Not enough has been done to fill the void since its services ended. CAHOOTS still operates in Springfield, but the city of Eugene must increase funding to support organizations looking to help fill that void.

One of CAHOOTS’ key attributes is early intervention through intensive treatment, and without it, people’s conditions can worsen until they eventually reach a crisis. There is now increased pressure on emergency responders in Eugene to handle the calls that CAHOOTS used to take on.

This was evident when Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner said in a November press conference that his patrol officers had been seeing calls on their screens that they couldn’t get to, and that it would be “a nice fit for something to fill the gap.”

CAHOOTS dealt with more than 3,200 incidents in collaboration with Eugene Springfield Fire from January to March of 2025. In 2024, CAHOOTS received an average of 38 calls a day, conducted more than 2,200 total transports to the appropriate health services and handled nearly 14,000 incidents.

Replacing that amount of burden is a difficult task for anyone, in addition to the fact that many of these incidents were handled alongside the police, and sometimes CAHOOTS acted as a nonviolent crisis response team that reduced police workload. Now, other responders must handle those calls and even divert calls from police dispatches in certain situations, increasing the number of calls and incidents they need to respond to. 

After CAHOOTS’ services ended in Eugene, Mobile Crisis Services of Lane County became the primary resource for mental health crisis services. However, it does not provide involuntary or secure transportation to medical services like CAHOOTS is designed to do. It is are also not a 24-hour operation, whereas CAHOOTS had provided 24/7 services in Eugene since 2017.

So while there are still services that exist as alternatives to fill CAHOOTS’ gap in Eugene, nothing has quite transpired to the level of crisis intervention and reliable access to help that was once provided for 35 years.

Despite the city of Eugene projecting a $2 million budget gap in the 2027-29 budget cycle, I think it would be necessary for the city to better allocate its resources more towards providing adequate resources for mobile crisis services.

For example, there are many infrastructure projects and public space improvements that Mayor Kaarin Knudson has planned for 2026, such as the redevelopment of the former Lane Community College downtown center and the north butterfly lot redevelopment.

While these are important things to improve, they aren’t a necessity to prioritize, especially with many redevelopment projects having the purpose of making the city “more beautiful and vibrant” or bringing more jobs and people into downtown Eugene, according to Knudson. There are better ways to achieve that goal, and in my opinion, more important, life-impacting matters to attend to.

With the thousands of calls CAHOOTS handled, crises they diverted and people’s lives they potentially saved, its absence can be a life or death situation for many people on the streets. The lack of resources implemented to fill its void is concerning, and the benefits of saving lives outweigh the economic benefits the city may receive from improving nonessential public spaces or redevelopment projects.

The impact of CAHOOTS is undeniable, and while it’s evident that many organizations are working to fill this much-needed gap in the community, not nearly enough has been done to solve the glaring issues. 

All of Eugene needs the services provided by CAHOOTS, not just as a luxury to complement the police, but to address or de-escalate mental health struggles before they escalate into crises.

Change must happen quickly, before the situation gets worse, as many are helpless on the streets and missing the service that CAHOOTS once provided. The helpless are relying on organizations and the city to help them. It’s up to the city of Eugene to save them by increasing funding.