Bringing CAHOOTS to South Pasadena & Local Cities

Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets (CAHOOTS) is mobile crisis response team in Eugene, Oregon. They respond to mental health, substance use, and homelessness related calls for service instead of police.

Now, teams based on this model may be coming to cities in the West San Gabriel Valley.

In Eugene, the 30-year old CAHOOTS program costs about $2.1 million a year, but saves the city about $8.5 million annually by reducing the need for police. Social workers dispatched under the program handle about 17 percent of calls made each year to the Police Department. Based on its success, other Oregon cities have joined CAHOOTS. The program has been widely acclaimed in the media recently as a good model for enhancing public safety — from the Wall Street Journal and Atlantic magazine to The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

To read the South Pasadenan article, please click here.