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White Bird, which now operates CAHOOTS in Springfield, could submit a new proposal to the city, which is looking for an organization to respond to people having mental health crises or intoxicated individuals in crisis, as well as people “seeking community supporting care.”
As Springfield’s contract for CAHOOTS nears expiration, the city is seeking proposals from interested providers of mobile crisis intervention services.
CAHOOTS is dispatched through the Springfield Police Department’s nonemergency number and operates in Springfield from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. It is a service of White Bird Clinic, a nonprofit organization.
The city’s contract with White Bird for CAHOOTS services runs through Dec. 31, city spokesperson Elyse Ditzel told Lookout Eugene-Springfield.
She said the current contract was established through a sole-source procurement process, meaning it did not go through competitive bidding.
“With the contract approaching its expiration and the potential for other interested service providers, the City issued a request for proposals as part of its standard procurement process,” Ditzel wrote in an email to Lookout. “The RFP allows interested organizations, including White Bird Clinic, to be considered through a competitive process.”
She said the city issued the request for proposals to meet procurement requirements to keep providing mobile crisis response services.
In an email to Lookout, Carl Swart, development administrator at White Bird, said, “White Bird Clinic is looking closely at the RFP and will be making a mission-aligned and responsible decision in the upcoming week.”
Springfield’s 2026 contract with White Bird, which ran from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, called for CAHOOTS services and fuel cost reimbursement not to exceed $559,491. The contract states the agreement may be extended.
The contract has been amended twice to extend it, first until Nov. 30, 2026, and then until Dec, 31, 2026, according to documents obtained by Lookout. The city will compensate CAHOOTS up to $693,000 for total costs incurred between July 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2026, the documents state.
According to the sole source justification form signed by city officials in 2025, “CAHOOTS is currently the only established nongovernment local program available to provide mobile crisis services.”
CAHOOTS stopped operating in Eugene in April 2025, citing financial reasons, after decades of providing alternative response services for police calls. The city of Eugene requested proposals for a new “Peer Navigation Alternative Response” program and selected an organization called Ideal Option in April 2026 to run a year-long alternative response pilot program for people in crisis.
Ideal Option was one of two bidders on Eugene’s proposal. The other, Willamette Valley Crisis Care, was founded last year by former CAHOOTS workers.
Services supplement Lane County response
The city of Springfield posted the request for proposal Oct. 19. According to the request, “The objective is to continue to provide approximately 12 hours of in-person mobile crisis service per day to supplement urgent crisis response provided by Mobile Crisis Service of Lane County.”
Proposals are due Nov. 23 and an intent-to-award notice is scheduled for Dec. 1.
The document does not mention CAHOOTS by name, but states, “A contracted mobile crisis response team has provided service to the City of Springfield since 2015, under the direction and dispatch of the Springfield Police Department (SPD).”
During fiscal year 2026, “Springfield contracted mobile crisis response teams” responded to an average of 6.55 calls for service per day, according to the document.
In 2024, Lane County launched its mobile crisis service program, “transitioning the Springfield focused mobile crisis services to a supplemental service within the City of Springfield,” the document states.
Springfield partnered with Lane County to fund CAHOOTS in 2015, city records show. With county funding, CAHOOTS operated in Springfield 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In June 2024, Lane County discontinued financial support of CAHOOTS in Springfield, and it began funding the program with 12 hours of service, seven days a week.
A county spokesperson previously told Lookout the county stopped funding CAHOOTS in Springfield because the program was not in compliance with new Oregon Health Authority guidelines. At that time, the county set up its own mobile crisis services program.
The city’s request for proposal says the contracted organization would have “a broader criterion for service” than Mobile Crisis Services of Lane County, including responding to people experiencing mental health crises and intoxicated individuals in crisis, as well as people “seeking community supporting care authorized by the City.”
“The proposed services are intended to continue Springfield’s current service model, in which the City contracts with a provider to respond to situations that do not meet Mobile Crisis Services of Lane County’s criteria for an in-person response,” Ditzel wrote.
The county’s program focuses on behavioral health crises, while CAHOOTS also provides first aid and nonemergency medical care and services related to substance abuse, among others. Each CAHOOTS team consists of a medic and a crisis worker.
According to the city’s request, the 18-month contract is anticipated to begin Jan. 1, 2027, with the opportunity to renew annually for five years. Funding and scope of service will be determined based on the proposal.
