May 23 on The Story: Since 2022, the Old Town InReach Program has deployed a small group of peer support specialists to work with homeless people in downtown Portland. The staff are people who have struggled with homelessness, addiction or mental illness themselves, and they are meant to help people access services, or to diffuse conflicts and help avoid calls to 911. According to the service providers downtown, this small team has had a huge impact. But with a major budget gap looming, Multnomah County has proposed cutting the program entirely in favor of prioritizing shelter beds — and that's causing an outcry from the groups who say this program is really working. Watch more The Story videos: http://bit.ly/watchTheStory Follow The Story on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheStoryKGW Follow The Story on Instagram: https://instagram.com/thestorykgw