The head of Portland Street Response quietly resigned Oct. 28, a week before a citywide election that has made the fledgling first response program a central issue.
Lielah Leighton had worked as Portland Street Response’s program manager for just over a year, stepping in during a tumultuous time. She replaced Robyn Burek, the program’s first manager, who quit after feeling “politically scapegoated” by the program’s leadership, according to her exit letter.
Leighton, who had worked as a supervisor at Portland Street Response before stepping into the manager role, did not respond to OPB’s request to comment on her exit.
She offered little explanation in a resignation letter to Elisabeth Perez, the deputy director of the Community Safety Division, which manages Portland Street Response. “I believe it is in the best interest of the program for me to announce my resignation in simple terms promptly,” Leighton wrote in a letter, obtained by OPB through a public records request. “I will cite personal reasons but wish to keep the details of my situation private.”
Leighton was away on personal leave for at least a month before her resignation.
Perez said she was grateful for Leighton’s leadership during a “pivotal time.”
Portland Street Response, which sends unarmed first responders to 911 calls related to people having behavioral health crises outside, has been hobbled by political quibbles since it was first piloted in 2020 by then-City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. Funding shortfalls have limited staff growth and kept it from expanding to 24-7 service as planned.
Undated photos supplied by the City of Portland, showing members of Portland Street Response team at work.
Courtesy of the city of Portland
The program has also struggled to grow under the Portland Fire Bureau, the department that initially oversaw the pilot. Previous audits of the program specifically pointed to “cultural differences” between how Portland Street Response and Fire Bureau employees approached their work.
This relationship was further strained with the election of City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez, who beat Hardesty in 2022. Gonzalez, who oversaw the Fire Bureau for his first year and a half in office, limited Portland Street Response staff’s ability to distribute supplies, citing concerns about tent-related fires. He also cast doubt on employees’ approach to homelessness, characterizing staff as “police abolitionists” and “enablers.”
Burek, the street response program’s previous manager, left in July 2023. In her exit letter, she pointed to a serious lack of support from Fire Bureau management that left her feeling “intentionally set up” to fail.
After a public campaign formed around the demand to move Portland Street Response to a different part of city government, Portland City Council approved a budget in May that directed the program to leave the Fire Bureau. The program now operates under the Community Safety Division, which is led by Public Safety Deputy City Administrator Mike Myers.
The transition has been slow and clunky, according to those with knowledge of the shift. But in interviews, leaders at the Fire Bureau and Community Safety Division have cautiously called the move a win.
“I think it’ll be good for morale,” said Ria Nochera, a Portland Street Response supervisor. “It’ll allow us to relax into our own ethos. And make it easier to make progress as a team.”
In this year’s race for Portland’s newly-expanded City Council, support for expanding Portland Street Response has been a central talking point for candidates across the political spectrum. Yet, when Portland Street Response staffers scheduled an event to educate candidates about the program – not unlike events hosted by the Fire Bureau and Portland Police ahead of the election – Myers canceled the event 24 hours before its start, noting that he wanted to “ensure that the City of Portland remains politically neutral.”
Leighton resigned weeks later. Perez, with the Community Safety Division, said she has appointed Portland Street Response administrative specialist April Roa to work as the effort’s interim manager.
A group formed to advocate for the program’s survival, Friends of Portland Street Response, tied Leighton’s exit to the political turmoil that’s rankled the program from the start.
“This is just the latest fallout,” the group wrote in a statement emailed to OPB. “Portland Street Response is a critical, lifesaving program that our next Mayor and Council must restore and expand as part of an improved, modern first response system.”
The future of the program may be more promising under new city leadership.
Gonzalez will leave City Hall next year after losing his bid for mayor. The majority of incoming city councilors have campaigned on the promise to support and strengthen Portland Street Response. The program also has the backing of Mayor-elect Keith Wilson, who has pledged to end unsheltered homelessness within a year.
“Everyone benefits from the critical role Portland Street Response plays in handling issues and reducing the burden on our first responder system,” Wilson wrote in a social media post in July. “Let’s ensure this vital asset never sits idle.”
More recently, Wilson received backlash for telling the Oregonian/OregonLive.com that he’d like to use the program as an alternative to police for enforcing the city’s public camping ban. On Saturday, Wilson issued a clarification, writing on social media that he wants to use Portland Street Response to help transport people living outside to shelters, not enforce laws.