How a Portland homeless shelter is saving lives with sensor system on its public bathrooms

By Blair Best, KGW

PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW/KTVZ) — Staff working at organizations that help homeless people downtown Portland often find themselves on the front lines of the city’s addiction crisis, responding to overdoses right outside their front doors — including in public bathrooms, KGW reported. 

At Portland Rescue Mission on West Burnside Street, there are two public bathrooms — the only two in the city open to homeless people at all hours and year-round. 

“To find a bathroom on the streets ... you kind of have to go out of your way,” said one homeless man in Old Town. 

“We have over 6,000 unique individuals use our services every year. It’s a pretty incredible number, and many of those are just for the sake of having a safe restroom to use,” explained Timothy Desper, the Burnside services director at Portland Rescue Mission. 

However, with those restrooms comes a risk of people experiencing a medical emergency, including overdoses while inside.

“Bathrooms are one of the more dangerous parts of providing services,” said Desper. 

Since the start of last year, Portland Fire and Rescue (PF&R) records show that first responders were called to the Burnside Portland Rescue Mission location more than 200 times, and 25 of them were for overdoses.

“Anyone who provides services to individuals struggling with addiction and has restroom has the — in my opinion — obligation to be aware of how those restrooms are used,” said Desper.

Portland Rescue Mission put sensors on the bathroom doors, where a red flashing light alerts staff when someone has been locked inside for ten minutes. 

A hand-drawn tally behind the front desk shows the number of lives it’s helped save in the past year.

“Because of this system, four times, we were able to respond and bring people back,” Desper explained. 

“I think that’s beautiful. We need to do more for the opioid epidemic,” said Andrew, who told KGW that he was kicked out of a Portland detox center for getting into an altercation Tuesday morning, leading him to relapse on meth.

Another side effect of the epidemic was seen early Tuesday on the corner of Southwest Second and Couch streets, where first responders were called to someone experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms.

“Our front-line team has responded to more overdose deaths,” said Courtney Dodds, the communications director at Union Gospel Mission. Staff there are also seeing a rise in overdoses right outside their doors.