Chris Dudley for Governor of Oregon

I entered Wallace Marine Park in Salem, Oregon, with Chris Dudley, a candidate for governor. It is one of the largest homeless encampments in the state. Because of the high concentration of people struggling with addiction, mental illness, trauma, and instability, it is also an unpredictable environment.

We met a young homeless man who had turned an old mattress frame into a makeshift gate. He told us he had served time in the Oregon Youth Authority and was released at 18. He is now 29 and has been homeless ever since. He said he had signed up for housing but did not understand the rules about staying in contact. When he checked back months later, he had been removed from the list. He had no phone and no realistic way to stay connected to the very system that was supposedly there to help him.

When Chris asked if he wanted to work, the answer came quickly: yes. That moment matters because it cuts through one of the biggest lies in Oregon’s homelessness debate. Many people are not simply refusing help. Many are lost inside a system that is too passive, too confusing, and too comfortable measuring money spent instead of lives changed.

Chris did not hesitate. He wanted to understand as much as he could. Why were people living there? Who were they as human beings? What barriers were keeping them outside? What would actually help? I was impressed, but not surprised.

We also met a homeless woman who told us she has been homeless on and off since she was 13. She said she has spent more of her life homeless than housed. She had contact with outreach workers, but described them as unmotivated and said they seemed to be going through the motions. Her biggest complaint was simple and devastating: nobody truly listened to her. When asked to grade the social service system, she gave it an F.

That is what Chris Dudley saw in Wallace Marine Park. Not statistics. Not talking points. People. Broken systems. Missed opportunities. Lives slipping through the cracks in real time.

This was at least the tenth time, and the fourth Oregon city, where I had watched Chris walk the streets with me. Before Salem, I had taken him through Portland multiple times, including the areas with the highest concentration of homelessness, addiction, and untreated mental illness in the city.

That is where he met Zach, a longtime homeless man. We talked with Zach, and he explained to Chris that he chose to be homeless and would not accept help. A few weeks later, Zach died of a fentanyl overdose. That clearly affected Chris. It showed him how common death and dying on the streets really are.

That was part of the deal from the beginning. When Chris first contacted me, I told him I would not sugarcoat the streets or limit his exposure. I told him we would go straight into the center of the chaos so he could see it firsthand. What impressed me was that he kept coming back. Over and over again, Chris asked me to show him the worst of the worst in Oregon.

Next, we went to Eugene, a city known for having one of the highest per-capita homelessness rates in the country. We spoke with several people living on the streets, and many said the same thing: they want the poison gone. Fentanyl has taken over. Even many people trapped in addiction know it is destroying lives all around them.

What stood out just as much was what we did not hear. Too many people told us they had never once been approached by an outreach worker. Let that sink in. In a city known nationally for its homelessness crisis, people are living openly on the streets and saying no one from the system has ever reached out to them. That is not just a failure of policy. It is a failure of presence.

I have accompanied countless candidates for elected office, as well as people who were already elected, into these environments. But Chris Dudley has gone out with me more than any of them by far to understand this crisis firsthand. Even before he announced his run for governor, he was contacting me and asking to see the crisis up close.

There are other solid candidates for governor. I have real respect for State Representative Ed Diehl, whom I admire. I interviewed State Representative Christine Drazan at the Capitol and found her very intelligent. I have also spoken with David Medina, and I admire his passion and strong faith. But when it comes to who I believe is best suited to confront Oregon’s addiction, mental health, and homelessness crisis, I choose Chris Dudley.

Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about ending this crisis. Having worked in the field for more than two decades, I have a strong understanding of what it will take. We can no longer call homelessness a state of emergency if we refuse to treat it like one.

I have spoken extensively with Chris and his team about what his first 100 days in office would look like. I believe Chris Dudley would treat this like the crisis it is from day one. He would expect measurable results from the providers we pay. He would push for more assertive outreach. He would demand better data and a more unified system. He would tie grant money to outcomes instead of simply rewarding activity. He would move Oregon away from a failed low-barrier, housing-only approach and toward prevention, recovery, accountability, and results.

He has also talked about establishing stronger leadership and direct accountability over Oregon’s homelessness response, including the possibility of a homelessness czar or council with the authority to demand plans, audits, adjustments, and measurable progress.

On fentanyl, he has proposed separating fentanyl from other Schedule II drugs in order to create harsher penalties for distribution. That matters. Fentanyl is not just another drug. It is killing people at a scale Oregon still refuses to fully confront. Chris has also publicly challenged leaders in Salem, including Governor Tina Kotek, to walk through homeless camps with him and see the crisis for themselves. That is what Oregon desperately needs.

I have been deeply disappointed in Governor Kotek’s response to homelessness. For three years in a row, she has declared a state of emergency on homelessness. But I have not seen enough action to convince me the crisis is being treated with the urgency it deserves.

Every day that goes by without an effective approach, people die. It reminds me of Measure 110 supporters who argued they simply needed more time. But time is a killer for people living homeless. They have one of the lowest life expectancies of any demographic in America.

Sadly, homelessness has become a political issue, and its root causes have been buried under ideology. It is time to admit that Governor Tina Kotek has not done enough to end this humanitarian crisis.

Oregon does not need another politician who declares an emergency and then manages the decline. It needs someone willing to walk into the camps, listen to the people living there, demand results from the system, and treat homelessness, addiction, and mental illness like the life-or-death crisis it is.

For me, that person is Chris Dudley.

Learn more here https://www.dudley4oregon.com/