Construction is underway!

The CATT project is split across two sites, each needing significant renovation before the CATT can open. Both sites are rapidly being transformed into the treatment centers they will become.

Hillsboro Recovery Center

The Hillsboro Recovery Center, located on Elam Young Parkway, will offer outpatient services, a peer recovery center, health services and an access point into our homeless services system. When completed, it will also be the new home for our Hawthorn Walk-In Center (crisis and urgent behavioral health care) and the county’s behavioral health program.

Construction is well underway at this site with all interior demolition complete, new walls framed and sheetrock going up. We are still on target for opening in late spring 2025. 

Our contractors are working on a new entrance to the Hillsboro location.

The inside of the Hillsboro site has been completely gutted and new walls are framed in.

Beaverton Recovery Center

The Beaverton site is undergoing an even more dramatic renovation with the existing building only a shell of its former self. We kept the wood ceilings and center skylight which will help create a healing environment for our community members. In addition to the renovation of the existing building, this site will have a new attached building constructed for the residential services. The area that once was a parking lot is now being prepared for the foundation of the new addition.

Work is underway at our Beaverton site with the exterior stripped down to the framing and ready to receive a new look in a few months.

The inside of our Beaverton Recovery Center showing walls removed and new plumbing being installed.

Sobering and Deflection: Same or different?

If you’ve been paying attention to local news these days, you’ve likely heard about the changes to Measure 110. Critical to this effort is a commitment to ensure that people who could benefit from treatment don’t end up incarcerated instead. With the changes to the law came a new process called “deflection.” Deflection programs are designed to ensure that eligible individuals who are found to be in possession of a controlled substance have the option to avoid fines or jail time by accepting treatment instead. 

This is a great idea, but it can be difficult to understand what this looks like day to day. We hear a lot of people wondering if the CATT — specifically sobering services — are part of Washington County’s deflection program.

Will the CATT be deflection?

Not necessarily, but there will be overlap! The key to remember is that deflection in Washington County is a process with many options, and not necessarily a single place. This process will be dynamic, and we know that it will continue to change as we learn how to meet our county's needs.

For those of you following the CATT progress, you know that sobering services are part of the program design. At the CATT, we define sobering as “a voluntary service that is offered to individuals who are acutely intoxicated.” Sobering is a safe place for someone to be while the signs of intoxication resolve. This means they may only be there a few hours. 

Sobering isn’t treatment. But it is a wide open, welcoming place that can be a path into treatment if a person chooses. The benefit of having sobering at the CATT is that if the person does want treatment, we can rapidly connect them into other CATT programs.

Will a person eligible for deflection be taken to sobering?

Possibly! Because individuals who are severely intoxicated often have interactions with the police, we will work closely with public safety so they may bring people to the CATT, if the individual is willing. 

Currently, successful deflection means an individual has engaged in treatment to avoid criminal charges. While sobering is not treatment, it may be the place where someone chooses to enter treatment as their next step.

CATT services are designed to offer many different points of entry into treatment. We believe sobering can be one of those many points of entry. We also believe that the choice to enter treatment — and to begin recovery — is a complicated one and can look different from one person to the next. Once all of the CATT services are operating, an individual ready to take that critical first step will have several doors to choose from, each centered on compassion and respect and built on the belief that recovery is possible for anyone.

For more information about the Washington County Deflection Program, please visit our website.

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