Commissioners seek data before expanding juvenile treatment services; recovery campus name deferred

Chair Roberts opened a board discussion June 16 about options to support adolescent residential treatment and whether Clackamas County's new recovery campus could or should expand to serve youth.

Mary Rumba, the county's Health, Housing and Human Services director, briefed commissioners on existing resources: Parrot Creek (a nearby residential program that recently expanded residential services for males and provides outpatient and outreach), Harmony High School (a recovery-focused school), and local peer and prevention programs including 4D Recovery. Rumba and commissioners emphasized that Parrot Creek currently provides the core of residential capacity, particularly for males, and that mixing youth and adults in a single facility raises operational, safety and licensing concerns.

Commissioners discussed several models: a physically segregated youth wing on a campus ("a campus within a campus"), off-site satellite housing tied to outpatient services, or regional collaboration to achieve scale. Participants noted examples from other jurisdictions (New Haven for Hope in San Antonio and mother-and-child programs) and raised the need for demand studies, cost estimates, and partnerships with regional bodies such as Metro and ARPAC.

On naming, project coordinator Cindy Becker presented three options (board selection, public nomination, or ad-hoc committee) and staff urged including "Clackamas County" in the facility name for clarity. Commissioners favored selecting a name but asked for more time to deliberate; the board agreed to revisit the naming decision in about three weeks, ahead of the July 29 groundbreaking.

Staff committed to return with data on regional inpatient capacity for youth, demand estimates, and options for partnership or property acquisition if the county pursues youth residential services.