PORTLAND — Christine Drazan, the Republican candidate for Oregon governor, called Monday for a declaration of a state of emergency to fast-track action to fight homelessness.

The former House minority leader from Canby called for the action as part of a campaign “road map” unveiled Monday. Drazan won the GOP nomination in the May 17 primary election.

Drazan said declaring a state of emergency on homelessness would give the governor more power to take direct action. It would allow bureaucratic “barriers to be broken down so that people can begin to work together more effectively.”

The November election for governor is expected to be a three-way race between a trio of women who left the legislature last year to run for governor. They’re seeking to succeed Gov. Kate Brown, who cannot run again because of term limit laws.

Drazan won the May 17 Republican primary. Former House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, won the Democratic nomination.

Former Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, must still submit just under 24,000 valid signatures to the Secretary of State by Aug. 16 in order to have her name placed on the Nov. 8 general election ballot as a non-affiliated candidate.

Much of plan Drazan released Monday included proposals she has advanced earlier in the race. A key element would be seeking to repeal Measure 110, the 2020 ballot measure approved by voters that decriminalized possession of small amounts of illegal drugs, including heroin and methamphetamine.

Drazan called homelessness a crisis in Oregon and said the emergency declaration would speed-up responses, give them focus and get funding moving faster.

“We have the opportunity right now with a lot of different stakeholders who are throwing a lot of money at this problem,” Drazan told The Associated Press. “But what we’re missing is really a central point of focus and leadership that can coalesce all those efforts.”

Kotek and Johnson have both said Oregon’s level of homelessness is a crisis and would be a priority if they are elected.

The Oregon Legislatures approved $400 million for affordable housing during the 2021 session of the legislature. have voted to increase the number of living units in the state. A lack of relatively inexpensive options in the rental and homeowning markets has been cited by both parties as a contributing factor to homelessness.

The federal “Point in Time” count used by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines homeless as falling into two categories.

“Unsheltered” are living in a place not meant for permanent human habitation, such as a car, tent or temporary structure, on the street or pubic lands, or inside abandoned buildings.

“Sheltered” do not have a permanent home, but are living in an emergency shelter, transitional housing, or a hotel or motel paid for by an agency.

From 2015 to 2017, the total number of homeless in the state increased by 6%, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

Portland declared a state of emergency on homelessness five times in ten years, with the latest extension not due to expire until 2025. It allows for projects to win municipal administrative approval faster than standard applications.

Portland officials say homelessness rose 25% in the two years since the pandemic reached Oregon in February 2022. Other areas of the state saw homeless numbers nearly up by as much as 75%.

Government officials and advocates for the homeless say the problem has become worse due to the housing shortage, the COVID-19 pandemic, and high levels of illicit drug use.

A recent federal report found that just under 20% of teen and adult residents of Oregon report abusing drugs or alcohol, the highest rate of any state other than Montana.

The state has wrestled with a debate over the best way to reduce homelessness. Some business groups have called for more encampment sweeps and stricter enforcement of anti-camping ordinances, while others want more investment in social services and affordable housing.

“We have to provide flexibility in shelter space. We have to provide the right kinds of shelter space based on the populations we have out there,” Drazan said. “We can’t give up on anybody and we cannot allow this to continue.”

Homelessness and housing are also top issues for the two other candidates in Oregon’s gubernatorial race.

Kotek, the Democratic candidate, has said she would form a special emergency management team to work on the issues, in addition to issuing an executive order on her first day in office to create a 10-year plan to build more homes in urban, suburban and rural areas.

In 2020, while serving as speaker in the Oregon House, Kotek also called for a statewide emergency declaration for homelessness.

Drazan was the House Republican minority leader at the time during the 35-day “short session” allowed in even numbered years by the Oregon constitution.

Republicans is the House and the Senate staged a walkout to deny a quorum required to conduct any business. The constitutional time period for the session ran out. Hundreds of bills from both parties that were automatically killed when the clock ran out on the session and the legislature was legally required to adjourn.

Noting Drazan’s role in the 2020 walkout, Kotek’s campaign described Drazan’s state of emergency proposal as a “stunning reversal.”

“Instead of helping find solutions to the housing and homelessness crisis, she pushed her caucus to flee the state and kill nearly every bill that was introduced, including bills on homelessness,” said Katie Wertheimer, communications director for Kotek’s campaign.

Johnson, the non-affiliated candidate, has called for creating more designated camping areas and emergency shelters. Like Drazan, Johnson supports repealing Measure 110, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of hard drugs.

“I will end the tent cities,” Johnson said in an email on Monday. “We don’t need more plans. We need action from a new governor who’s going to get stuff done.”

No Republican has won the governor’s office since 1982. Democrats currently hold supermajorities of more than three-fifths in the state House and Senate. All executive offices are held by Democrats.

The Democratic sway over politics is anchored in Portland, which votes overwhelmingly Democratic, according to records kept by the Oregon Secretary of State.

Bend, in Deschutes County, east of the Cascades, is the state’s fastest growing area and has attracted a large number of Democrats to an area traditionally supportive of Republicans.

Much of eastern, central and southwestern Oregon back Republican candidates and conservative causes, state election records show.

While covering a much larger area, Republican-leaning portions of the state have significantly less population density. 

Drazan is hoping to overcome the historic trend of Democrats in the governor’s office by capitalizing on rapidly rising inflation and polls showing dissatisfaction with Brown and President Joe Biden’s job performance.

Both Democrats and supporters of Johnson’s campaign noted that Drazan’s “road map” announced on Monday makes no mention of abortion.

Kotek and Johnson have both highlighted Drazan’s personal anti-abortion stance, which included tweeting “Life Wins” on the day the U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down the abortion rights precedent set in 1973 in the Roe v. Wade decision.

Drazan is personally anti-abortion but has said Oregon laws guaranteeing abortion access in Oregon have a stronger legal anchor than the federal judicial precedent overturned this year by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

he Oregon legislature strengthened state laws on abortion access when it passed the Reproductive Health Equity Act in 2017. The legislation was signed into law by Gov. Kate Brown. 

The act requires insurance companies to cover abortion procedure costs.

Oregon has voted several times in recent decades in favor of maintaining abortion access. Major polls have shown a majority of the state’s support abortion rights.

With abortion access protected under state law in Oregon, Drazan said “there’s no reason to include it in the roadmap.”

In the first major test of public sentiment after the Supreme Court decision, voters in heavily-Republican Kansas voted last week to reject a ballot measure that would have curbed abortion rights.

“When I talk to Oregonians, the issues that they want me to address are affordability, education, congestion, homelessness, crime,” she said.

Drazan said statements from Democrats about the Kansas vote are an attempt to change the topics of the debate away from the record of Kotek, Johnson and other Democrats who have held overwhelming control over state policy.

“The issues that are happening in Kansas, the issues that are happening across the nation, have little to nothing to do with what I am talking about with Oregonians right now.” Drazan said.

Despite Oregon’s safeguards protecting abortion rights, Democrats are banking on the hot-button issue to help energize voters to vote in November. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling came after the May 17 primary and its impact on elections in Oregon won’t be known until November. 

Democrats need a big turnout to maintain their hold on the governorship, the legislature, and Congress. The party of a newly elected president historically loses seats in the U.S. House at the first midterm. President Joe Biden has received low marks for his handling of inflation in recent polls. With Democrats holding a 220-210 majority with five vacancies, even a small loss of seats could hand control to Republicans.

The majority opinion on abortion included three justices added to the court by President Donald Trump, a Republican, during his four years in office. Not only are Republicans seeking to take back control of the U.S. House, they are also aiming for a majority in the evenly split U.S. Senate. Beyond 2022, Trump has said he wants to return to the White House in 2024, despite federal, state and local investigations into his actions around the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, as well as his business activities.

Oregon Capital Bureau reporter Gary A. Warner contributed background on the race for governor and Oregon’s political history on abortion to this report.

Claire Rush, a reporter for the Associated Press under the Report for America program, reported from Portland and sought comments from Drazan, Kotek and Johnson.