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JULIANA:
Welcome to They Are Us, where you’ll hear stories of resilience, hope, and community from people in recovery and experts who support them. I’m your host, Juliana. In this episode, we’re highlighting a powerful partnership between Downtown Portland Clean and Safe and CCC’s Clean Start program. Together, they help keep the Portland metro area clean and welcoming, while also creating meaningful employment and support for people rebuilding their lives after addiction and homelessness.
You’ll hear from Mark Wells, executive director of Downtown Portland Clean and Safe. Clean and Safe provides public safety and janitorial services across hundreds of city blocks. You’ll also meet Mike Forney, a Clean Start team member known around town as Belmont Mike. He shares his recovery journey and why building trust with people experiencing homelessness matters. Let’s get started.
[MUSIC]
Mark Wells is the executive director of Downtown Portland Clean and Safe, where he supports the work necessary for maintaining an attractive, clean, safe, and inviting physical environment in downtown Portland. Welcome to the podcast, Mark.
MARK WELLS:
Well, thank you so much, it is a pleasure to be here. Anytime I get invited to talk about the work and the partnerships we have, I’m an enthusiastic, yes! So, thank you for having me.
JULIANA:
Before you worked at Clean and Safe, you spent decades in law enforcement. Did I hear you were an air marshal at one point?
MARK WELLS:
I was, yes. I’m a huge plane nerd. I absolutely, anything that flies. I used to fly back when I had more time and more money. Now I have two beautiful children, so, I lack time and money, but I’m happier than I’ve ever been. Yeah, I did that right after 9/11. So the first round of hiring was people that were current federal agents. I was up in Seattle for almost a little over two years doing that. They were supposed to open an office in Portland and they never did, so that’s why I left. And like I said…
JULIANA:
Super interesting. You know, everybody thinks that every plane has an air marshal on it. Is that true?
MARK WELLS:
Absolutely not. There’s about 40,000 flight legs every day in the continental United States. The number is actually classified, no, a lot of the, know, flying into big cities, DC, those big events, Superbowl, no. And ideally you should never know if you have one.
JULIANA:
Right, so we quit trying to figure out who the Air Marshal is on every flight.
MARK WELLS:
Well, sometimes you can tell, but yeah. Safest way to travel. Any day of the week is in an airplane. There’s my plug for civil aviation and all of our amazing air crews.
JULIANA:
That’s great, yeah. I think I know my sum total of information about Air Marshals from the movie Bridesmaids. I don’t think it’s very accurate.
MARK WELLS:
No, we’ll talk more later after the show about that. Yeah, not totally accurate.
JULIANA:
Okay, so I want to talk about community policing because I think community policing is really important. Tell me what you think about community policing and how is Portland’s track record around community?
MARK WELLS:
It’s a great question and something I’m really, really passionate about. When I started, I left Hillsboro Police as an officer. I lived in North Portland at the time and started as a civilian non-sworn crime prevention coordinator. And Portland was the, you know, this is 2008, was really a best practice model. So, if you lived in anywhere in our 96 neighborhoods, you had an assigned civilian crime prevention coordinator, which was really advantageous for a lot of reasons. We worked with communities that for whatever reason had apprehensions of working with the police. I didn’t wear a uniform. I was less, not that I wasn’t dressed up, but I was very casual, we were community organizers working on that. But you had a neighborhood liaison officer who was a police officer. You had a district officer. You had a neighborhood response team officer in your precinct. You had an assigned neighborhood deputy district attorney. And then we saw 2010, they cut two of the precincts. And we just saw this erosion of a model that really, a lot of other cities would come out and want to learn from Portland. And it was sad to see that happen, because the things that I usually could do I couldn’t do because we didn’t have those resources.
JULIANA:
Mark, tell me about Clean and Safe.
MARK WELLS:
Yeah, Clean and Safe is what’s called an enhanced service district. So, we’re a 501c3 nonprofit and we provide janitorial, public safety, and downtown programming support for currently 213 blocks in our downtown Portland. We have a street outreach program. Then we have a whole other program for downtown retail programming and support. That’s all the 800 trees that we light up. That’s pop-up shops. We manage Director Park, which has been a really fun private public partnership with the city. We provide public safety and the public right away. We have very unique clothing and logos so that we’re not misidentified as the police.
We take about 1,500 calls a month of what we call low-level, no-violence calls. These are all calls that if we didn’t exist, would be going to the Portland Police Bureau. A lot of it is welfare checks, people that are just down. We know they’re alive, but they’re not looking well. And I just finished my report, I have to do a report every year to city council, but we had, I think, 87 overdose saves. They were first on scene, administered Narcan and CPR combination, and saved that life. And I tell city council every time I go before, I’m so proud of that number because that’s 87 Portlanders that might not be with us. But we’re not first responders. And again, in our name, we’re an enhanced service district. And we’re really filling a gap of a very underfunded, under supported public safety system and social service system. And that’s probably the biggest frustration of me and my staff is that we’re supposed to be enhancing. You know, the businesses voluntarily pay into this to make it shine a little bit more and have more things, not basic services.
And then the cleaning program, we’ve contracted with Central City Concern, I don’t even know how long, long, long, long time, which is awesome. yeah. is. And it’s by far the most rewarding part of my job because I have learned, I’ve worked in social services and law enforcement for a long time, but I’ve never had a relationship and a partnership with folks that are just starting their journey of recovery or are in recovery that have made it back, have beaten a lot of the odds.
And it’s helped me really understand and open my eyes. And then I get to see, and you talked about community policing, this is something that I really love is we work very closely with the police bureau, obviously, but they have the bike unit, the bike squad. And it’s nice, they work with us, they carry our security radio. We have a direct partnership, because again, we take calls, is it a crime? Do we need to call the police? We assess it, we try to mitigate it, try not to call the police, let them do more, know, higher priority calls. But we work hand in hand. And a lot of times our cleaners are in pretty rough situations.
It’s a good story I’ll tell. We had a cleaner that said, and he spent a long time incarcerated. I think his first formal job was with Clean and Safe. And he said, if you would have asked me a year ago if I was texting a police officer and telling him where the Honduran drug cartel was dealing drugs downtown, because we had that two summers ago, I would have said, absolutely not. I don’t work with the police. And fun part is you ask the officers who actually are getting those texts and they said, yeah, if you would have asked me a couple of years ago before I got on this unit that I would be texting a cleaner with Clean and Safe, and working together to arrest some pretty bad people and get basically poison off our streets, it’s changed both of their mindsets. And they’re seeing the world through the eyes of a police officer and that police officer is getting to know that cleaner as a person. And they learn the story because they spend a lot of time talking and working together.
JULIANA:
Tell me about what does a day look like for your clean start workers and what are they doing and how are they interacting with their community and what are they actually doing every day?
MARK WELLS:
Great question. So, we have kind of two parts to our cleaning program. We have folks that are in Clean Start. Oftentimes their first kind of re-entry to the workforce or starting at some stages of recovery. And those are folks that are called barrel pusher. And that’s kind of that six month Clean Start program. And then the other part of our contract are folks that are full-time employees with Central City concern. A lot of these folks are graduates of that program of Clean Start, have started their path there and they work full time. So we have folks that are on our contract that have been on for years and years and years. And they really serve as kind of that mentor and support, and that’s the whole idea is you start pushing a barrel and it’s so much more.
JULIANA:
So, Mark, tell me more about what Clean and Safe is, the kind of impact it’s having on the community.
MARK WELLS:
I always am very happy to share our statistics for our cleaning program. The main categories report on a bunch of, but it’s bags of trash, 65,600 individual bags of trash, 31,500 graffiti tags are removed, 70,700 biohazards. We those ones and twos and everything else. And then 48,200 needles that are collected in our 213 blocks. And again, that’s just one contract year with our contract with CCC. And I always tell people, imagine if Clean and Safe wasn’t here. No one’s picking this up. The city of Portland doesn’t have a sanitation bureau.
JULIANA:
I know. Frankly, it’s disturbing that we don’t have basic services in our city.
MARK WELLS:
We don’t, we don’t. And Clean and Safe has filled that gap.
JULIANA:
Remind everybody of the geographic boundaries of your area.
MARK WELLS:
We run basically along Naito. We go up to the train station, all of Old Town just a tiny slice of the pearl and we go, it’s a bit of a weird geography, you can look on our website, but it goes down 9th and 11th, a little bit above PSU and then across.
JULIANA:
And then you’re expanding?
MARK WELLS:
We’re moving out southwest a little bit because we go to 11th Avenue, so where literally right across the street might be a preschool or a daycare and we haven’t been able to service that area, so we’re absorbing a lot of churches, nonprofits, schools. Yeah, and I’m excited about that.
JULIANA:
So, let’s talk about the cleaners. We keep calling them cleaners, barrel pushers. I work for CCC, which is the Clean Start program, which is what we’re talking about. And by the way, just so everybody knows, Clean Start is a workforce development program, folks coming from living outside a lot of times, sometimes they just simply are working there because they got the job, but they’re union, they have benefits. It’s a really good workforce development program. So, tell me what you think about those folks and what they’re doing, kind of more on an individual basis.
MARK WELLS:
Yea, and that’s a good question. So, imagine you’re starting your road to recovery and you had anywhere from a year to sometime decades long struggles with addiction and now you’re being asked to spend eight hours a day. Now, granted it’s better now downtown, but you go back a year, especially two years ago, the amount of open air drug use, drug dealing. And I think that’s the strength of Clean Start, is you’re supported, you see things that are challenging, but you work through it. And when I hired my operations director, Steve, who’s fantastic, I said, your number one job is to support our vendors because they do a really, really difficult job. So, yeah, things have gotten better because these are folks that know what they’re talking about, have lived experience and have really good ideas that I would love for our elected officials to listen to.
JULIANA:
Yeah. Well, this podcast is one of the ways we’re doing that. We’re about to hear from Mike, who has a story that really aligns with what you’re talking about. And it’s something that is truly moving to me is Mike’s story about living outside and the folks from the Clean Start on the Eastside. Not only were they engaging with him, they were trying to save his life. And he credits them with saving his life because they kept saying, Mike you’re not well, you need to get help. And so on top of doing the work they’re doing, they’re also literally talking people.
MARK WELLS:
Their probably the best street outreach team we have even though that’s not their job classification.
JULIANA:
It’s incredible. I can get goosebumps every time I talk about this because it’s just so incredible what a person that has experienced some of the hardest stuff in their life can do for people who are in that place now.
MARK WELLS:
Yeah, and we run a very small street outreach. We started two years ago with helping hands re-entry up at Bybee Lakes. And those are folks that all come from our two street outreach workers, very similar demographic, coming from the same path. But who is better to build that rapport with somebody and try to break that cycle? Are you going to be here tomorrow? Let me have an amazing person come talk to you tomorrow. And that’s, again, where the city and the county especially are spending millions and millions and millions of dollars. And the problems are not getting better. Why not?
So, it’s great that you’re doing this and thank you again for the invitation because anybody that’s listening to this, tap into the experts. And again, I’m a best practice nerd. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Talk to the folks that know what they’re talking about, what helped them be successful, and then are we doing that as a community, as a government, with all these programs? And if not, why not? Try to take the politics out of it and just do what works.
JULIANA:
What works. Do it. Yeah, that’s… Yeah, I agree. Let’s just cut the BS and do what works. And we know what to do. I mean, Central City Concern’s CEO, Dr. Andy Mendenhall, says it all the time. This isn’t that hard. We know what to do, but we have to get out of our own way and start doing it.
MARK WELLS:
Yeah, yeah, and a lot of that, again, that’s always lead with compassion, always lead with being open and listening to the story, but programs, accountability. And I hear a lot from our cleaning staff all the time, I’d be dead if it wasn’t for this officer, this counselor, this judge saying, “you don’t need to go to jail, you need drug treatment, and I’m gonna make sure, and you’re gonna be successful.” And that’s what’s missing right now.
JULIANA:
Well, thanks, Mark. I’m really glad you could come today.
MARK WELLS:
Thank you. I really appreciate the opportunity. It’s always fun to talk about the amazing experiences that we have with Central City Concern. And for folks that are in our district, again, you can go to downtownportland.org is our website. If you’re not sure if you’re in the district, then our dispatch number, (503) 388-3888. And again, I got to come up with a better.
JULIANA:
(503) 388-3888, there’s a jingle in there.
MARK WELLS:
There you go. It’s 24 hours a day, so give us a call and we’ll do our best to help you.
[MUSIC]
JULIANA:
Mike Forney works for Clean Start, a homeless-to-work employment program that helps keep Portland neighborhoods clean by clearing away trash. He also engages with the homeless community. Welcome to the podcast, Mike!
MIKE FORNEY:
Thanks, glad to be here.
JULIANA:
Can you tell me about your journey to Clean Start and your road to recovery?
MIKE FORNEY:
Yeah, I grew up in Portland playing soccer, baseball, things like that as a young boy. And, as I got older, life was good. I started dabbling with drugs. And into my 20s, I was addicted. And it played a big impact on my life. And as life went on, around 2012, a lot of my family members started passing away.
And a lot of my stability wasn’t there like it once was. And when I got the news that my father had passed away, due to a gunshot, it was real devastating. And I left the treatment program that I was in at the time and I moved onto the river. I just moved down homeless to the river and I started a journey there that I didn’t know what was ahead of me. And before long, I was addicted to meth and I only went out at night.
And I would notice myself going sometimes up to a month without a shower, walking around not interacting with people. It was really uncomfortable. And I noticed a lot of other people in the community that were suffering in the same way. There were times where I ended up getting stabbed. I ended up getting shot. And I actually just ate dinner last night with a guy that stabbed me. So, it was, we’re friends today and he suffered from mental illness as well.
That’s the story of a lot of these people. And sometimes their plan isn’t to stay on the street. Mine wasn’t. I sure didn’t see myself for 10 years collecting pop cans and things to trade just for different things in life.
JULIANA:
Yeah, I mean, I think that our podcast is about sort of breaking some of these stigmas and what you’re talking about is sort of this “what led to being homeless” is so different for everybody.
MIKE FORNEY:
Yeah, it can be the loss of a job, it can be someone just changing the rent, you know, that simple. And so many people live paycheck to paycheck, you know, and just one curveball, so to speak, and they can be in a situation that they’re very vulnerable. They’re very vulnerable to the things being stolen. And then before you know it, they may be mentally ill for a minute and may settle for some sort of substance abuse. And at that point, the support that they may have had wouldn’t be there any longer. And it’s challenging.
JULIANA:
Yeah, sounds like, sounds, it’s very obvious, but I’m just gonna say it, it sounds like it’s really rough living outside.
MIKE FORNEY:
Well, it’s not only rough, but you throw an addiction on top of that to where you’re smoking dope. And when you wake up in the morning, you can’t move your fingers and you can’t move your toes. And then you try to go out and just get enough to get well enough to start doing it again. And that’s where it makes it impossible.
JULIANA:
Tell me the Belmont Mike story.
MIKE FORNEY:
Well, I thought I need to get back to society somehow. You know, and eventually I went in and I started warming up to people like my friend Dino and Tennessee.
JULIANA:
And, this is outside, under what, the Belmont Bridge?
MIKE FORNEY:
Yeah, and we were all outsiders, outcasts. Something had happened. So we had some things in common and we started helping one another, sometimes helping each other move. There might be a sweep, I’d go help them move. We didn’t even always like each other, but we started helping each other.
And we became something like brothers, I would say, you know, and as COVID came around, there was a lot more people. And I started noticing this. I was like, something is going on here. Because I hadn’t watched TV, I hadn’t listened to a radio in like 10 years. So, I started seeing a change in the community. And some of my friends from recovery started showing up and they were no longer in recovery. And some of them had disabilities, cerebral palsy and this and that, where they needed help zipping up their pants, putting on their shoes.
Well, fortunately, when I was a child, my grandmother and I helped disabled people in Southeast. So it just naturally came to me to help people. And, Jimmy, I found Jimmy, who had cerebral palsy. He was trying to survive just like anyone else. And I said, you’re going to need help. I need help. You’re going to need help. So, I brought him down there. He was my neighbor. I looked closely after Jimmy. And then more and more people. And over some time, I would, I’d keep the block clean. That’s what I did is my daily exercise and way of contributing. And I also walked people’s animals for them that live outside. was the dog walker. So, I got the protection from those guys. They’re like if anybody gives you a hard time, let us know. So, it was important. Plus, I got that companionship.
JULIANA:
Okay, but you got sick. You got-
MIKE FORNEY:
Got very, very sick to where I couldn’t, I not only got sick physically, but my addiction progressed. And I started doing things with my addiction that I couldn’t ignore. And I started noticing the people around me were changing and I didn’t know about the fentanyl at that point. Okay, and so my body started hurting. I started, it felt like I had rolled in fiberglass. I had these rashes all over my body. It was really, really painful. I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t sleep. And the doctors were coming through the neighborhoods at that time because there were so many sick.
So, they were coming in from OHSU and different hospitals and looking at us on the site and giving advice. So, they came through and they told me that I needed to either go in or they were going to come back and take action on me.
JULIANA:
You were that sick…
MIKE FORNEY:
So, yeah, I was lit up and like I said, I had rashes all over my body and they didn’t know what was the cause. They were trying to figure it out. So, they gave me a referral to go to urgent care.
And, I didn’t want to go because I was afraid. For one thing, my nerves were so shot, this might be hard to understand, but I hadn’t been in a grocery store in 10 years. I hadn’t been around normal people in 10 years. So just being somewhere where I would stick out was really awkward. And it took everything I had, once Eddie and them from the care team, they came and got me insurance right where I was at. And they did the things for me I couldn’t do for myself. And then they gave me the simple instruction, now you need to go to this address and they were willing to give me bus tickets, anything else. So, it was up to me at that point. I didn’t go right away. I sat there and smoked dope for a few more days. And then I decided I have to do this. And so, I was late, but I ended up going. And I told them that I’d been risky with myself and I hadn’t used protection. I’d been using drugs, you name it. And it could possibly be happening to me. I hadn’t slept good in years. I’d slept in gutters and doorways, you name it. Anyway, they did a little research and they said, well, from what we see and from what you’ve told us, we believe you may have syphilis, which is very, very deadly. And I thought about that and I said, well, that adds up and I’ve earned that. So, if that’s the case, I really don’t have anything to say for that. But they said, well, we can treat it, but you’re going to need to follow our instructions.
I said, okay. And they gave me a referral to go to the emergency room, which I didn’t go to. I went back home and I smoked more drugs because that’s how powerful my addiction was. And then my friend showed up. I asked God for help during this whole period too. I just cried and I said, “Lord, I need help.” And about that time, my friend Jesse Ray, who was also a leader in our group, he showed up after I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years. And when he showed up, I noticed his behavior was different. He just kind of studied me.
And he sat there and he studied me. And then he made a decision and a command. He said, in the morning, I’ll be back and you’re going to get in my car, we’re going to smoke some dope and then I’m taking you to the hospital. And it was weird because I kind of saw the connection there. I was like, I’ve just been praying for this and now this guy’s here. And I saw how things were getting ready to change and I could feel it. So, we went to the hospital and they wouldn’t let him in. And I went in and they talked to me and they let me know the severity of this and how my organs were closing down on me. And I thought, well, that explains the blood and all this other stuff that’s happening. So, I just kind of had to look at my life. You know, this is what I had accomplished. And I looked at it honestly and I thought, wow, this really happens to people and I’m up to bat. During that time, I asked for a relationship with the creator, which I had severed.
And I’ll tell you what, that was an amazing experience because I started a conversation and I was real specific. I was angry and I was real specific with him. I said, “I don’t want to be hooked on cigarettes anymore. I don’t want to be a drug addict anymore. I want whatever’s hurting inside to start healing.” And a lot of that has happened. It’s amazing. And I don’t drink coffee because that leads to cigarettes for me. It’s just the my brain works.
Yeah, we always seem to categorize things and sometimes we see certain things as something they’re not, you know? And we’re just human beings that make choices every day. And thank God we live in an area that’s so surrounded with care.
JULIANA:
Yeah. We’re going to move to your recovery. So, you’re at OHSU, you’re feeling well enough to be discharged. So, tell me about that part and how’d you end up to sitting across from me having this conversation?
MIKE FORNEY:
Well, right before my discharge, they said, we want you to go to an aftercare place. We’re willing to get you a ride or referral and everything to get you straightened out. And I was hard headed and I said, you know, thanks, but I’d rather just go back to my tent. So, they got me a tent and then they said, we’re going to come visit you. They started bringing me my medicine and I thought, these people aren’t letting go. And I thought, I appreciate this, you know, and it made an impression on me that softened my heart a little bit.
And I know I remember their names, but I won’t say those right now. It just, it really made an impact on me and started taking my medication and things like that. And I got to sitting down at my tent and one day I just sitting there and I opened my Bible, man, and it said, if you want to be subject to this kind of lifestyle, keep doing this. And it was a nail on the head for me. And when I read that and I knew I didn’t look for it, it just was there. I said, I’m going to City Team.
And that’s what I did. I went back and they said, hey, why don’t you come back for dinner tonight? And said, I was thinking about moving in. And they said, well, fill out an application and we’ll talk to them. And so they did that and eight months later, I completed their program. And today I have an awesome, very clean room with my dog.
JULIANA:
What’s her name?
MIKE FORNEY:
Her name’s Willow.
JULIANA:
Okay. So, let’s talk about what you do right now for your job. So, how did you end up working for Clean Start?
MIKE FORNEY:
A friend of mine spoke to someone and they said, hey, we’d like him to work up here, have him apply and we’d like to get him started.
JULIANA:
Okay, so what do you do for CCC?
MIKE FORNEY:
I show up at 6:30 in the morning. We meet as a team and I’m a union rider. So, I team up with the driver and we go out and we check on a lot of people, a lot of the camps. We do assessments and we take a lot of trash, daily, to the dump.
JULIANA:
Are you able to talk to some of them about getting help?
MIKE FORNEY:
Yeah, I talked to them about getting help. A lot of them know me as Belmont Mike. So, they’re like, “whoa, man, you look great today, you’ve been doing some things differently.” I encourage a lot of them to be at City Team for dinner or one of these places for dinner. I used to go without eating and I’d rather get high. And then I learned I had to eat and I had to do certain things. Priorities are hard to keep when someone’s in addiction.
JULIANA:
Yeah. What are you seeing out there? Let’s paint a picture for folks about the realities of what’s going on right now in the streets.
MIKE FORNEY:
What I see is a plague. I see our city is being plagued right now from an honest level. I’ve seen it before in our communities. Back in the 80s, it was cocaine. I mean, it’s just a cycle that keeps happening. And what I see is an opportunity, an opportunity for people to get involved. Kids are even getting involved. Writing notes, get well notes and sack lunches and handing those out, that really made an impression on me, probably more than a five-hour speech would have. You know? Just that little letter, bro. And I was like, wow, yeah, I wasn’t ready for that one, you know, those kinds of things. And prayer, there’s a lot of opportunity for prayer, for people to draw closer to the church where they may have drifted.
JULIANA:
Is there anything that you want to say that you haven’t said yet? I mean, I just want to make sure that I give you that opportunity.
MIKE FORNEY:
I’m just really, really thankful for the patience, let me just say that, of this town for some of the things that they’ve set and endured during the last 15 years that I’ve experienced and, you know, all the change, let’s just say that, of people living outside that we haven’t experienced before here in Portland, the patience that this community has given and the support has been so, so much needed, and still is needed, because some of it got restricted. So, that stuff is really, really critical right now for people to continue helping. And thank you for everyone that has helped, including OHSU, all the City Teams and Central City’s. And yeah, because a lot of states don’t operate this way. It’s either you’re doing this or you’re going to prison.
JULIANA:
What gives you hope?
MIKE FORNEY:
Hope is different things happening in my life. I have three children that have welcomed me back with no resistance. They’re just happy that I’m alive. My mom, I stopped talking to my mom 10 years ago and I was able to call her and renew that. So, I still talk to my dad even though he’s passed away. I mean, we have a relationship and I kind of think sometimes that he’s still involved.
So, the rewards that I’m feeling today and the value that I have for certain things is much different. Sometimes just getting involved, taking that turn, and appreciating right where you’re at as part of the journey.
JULIANA:
All right. Well, Mike, thank you so much for sharing your story. You know, it makes a really big difference when people hear from folks like you. So, thank you for being here.
MIKE FORNEY:
Thank you.
JULIANA:
Thank you for tuning into They Are Us. Our Clean Start crew works hard every day to keep our community safe and clean. So if you see them around town, a simple hello or word of thanks can really brighten their day. To learn more about the Clean Start program, visit centralcityconcern.org. and if you have questions or suggestions for future episodes, email us at podcast@ccconcern.org. Until next time, I’m Juliana.
