more integration and best practices to serve Portland's homeless community

May 22, 2025, Portland, OR - Central City Concern (CCC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Amanda Risser, M.D., M.P.H. as the new Chief Medical Officer, CMO. Dr. Risser joined CCC in 2019 as our Senior Medical Director of Substance Use Disorder Services, leading projects such as CCC’s new 16 x Burnside Recovery Center, a 74-bed residential treatment facility. 

Dr. Risser is a triple-board certified Family Medicine, Addiction Medicine and Public Health and Preventive Medicine physician. She earned her medical degree at Stanford University and completed her Family Medicine and Public Health Residency Training Programs in Portland at OHSU. After her training, Dr. Risser served as an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at OHSU for nearly fifteen years before joining CCC. 

Over the past six years, Dr. Risser has led most of CCC’s clinician teams and supported the Letty Owings Center, Hooper Detox Stabilization Center and CCC’s infection prevention and outbreak response teams during the COVID pandemic. She helped our community respond to the rise of fentanyl and P2P meth and played a significant role in updating CCC’s withdrawal management protocols and expanding methadone stabilization services at Hooper. 

“I love working at CCC and feel so grateful that I get to continue to support the work we do. I love our patients and clients. I'm so proud of what we do,” says Dr. Risser. “I have had the privilege of being part of incredible teams and we've had amazing successes together in making care for our patients better, more compassionate, more supportive, and more integrated.” 

Dr. Risser has a passion for serving people with substance use disorders, providing full-spectrum adult and women’s healthcare, and supporting pregnant patients and new parents. She is a leader in addiction medicine, and her work has been featured repeatedly in local and national media. She shares a consistent message of kindness and respect, a powerful way to fight the stigma surrounding substance use disorders. 

As CMO, Dr. Risser will continue to represent CCC’s clinical teams and services across the region, bringing our vision of integrated, best practices to CCC patients and clients to the next level. 

About CCC     

Located in Portland, Oregon, Central City Concern (CCC) provides a comprehensive continuum of affordable housing options integrated with direct social services including health care, recovery, and employment. Founded in 1979, CCC has a staff of over 1,400 and an annual operating budget of $186 million. In 2024, CCC served nearly 16,000 individuals. Up to 30,000 people across the tri-county region are affected annually by homelessness.   

74 new beds available to help those in recovery

May 15, 2025, Portland, OR - Central City Concern (CCC) is pleased to announce the opening of the 16 x Burnside Recovery Center, located at 1616 E. Burnside St., Portland, a new drug- and alcohol-free, 74-bed residential treatment center, providing culturally responsive and trauma-informed care to those seeking treatment. 

Designed to address a key gap in our community’s continuum of care, 16 x Burnside supports people exiting Hooper Detoxification Center, individuals needing extended residential treatment before transitioning to recovery-supportive housing, and those preparing for substance use disorder (SUD) intensive outpatient care. CCC has seen a growing need to fill the enormous gap in our community for increased residential treatment capacity. As well, 16 x Burnside addresses one of CCC’s 2023-2026 Strategic Plan objectives to “close key care gaps.” 

With the help of Governor Kotek, CCC celebrated the opening (first patient seen on May 19) by announcing the new center to the media at a press conference held on May 14, 2025. Also in attendance were President and CEO Dr. Andy Mendenhall; Dr. Christa Jones, Behavioral Health Deputy Director, Oregon Health Authority; Skyler Brocker-Knapp, Director, Portland Solutions and Jeston Black, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Multnomah County. 

“...I remain committed, and Oregon remains committed, to a broad strategy to increase access to health care.” said Governor Kotek. “We’re investing in increased access across the state, increasing the number of residential treatment beds, and working to train and retain the mental health and addiction care professionals we need to get the job done... 16 and Burnside Recovery Center is a place where a vision for a strong continuum of care – from prevention and early intervention to intensive treatment and long-term support – can be realized.” 

“Most of the folks we will serve [at 16 and Burn] have been deemed too complex to be served elsewhere within the regional service continuum,” said Dr. Andy Mendenhall, President and CEO. “Painful to be turned away from services because folks are “too ill.” 16 and Burn changes this narrative and creates a place for folks to heal, enter recovery and get healthy enough to safely and securely re-enter life. When our patients heal our community also heals. This is something for us to truly celebrate.” 

The 16 X Burnside Recovery Center is referral-based only. Services provided will include behavioral health and medical services offered seven days per week, on-site outpatient primary care, peer mentor and case management services focused on skill building and community reintegration and community re-integration services (e.g. housing and employment) to ensure ongoing post-treatment support, among others. 16 x Burnside will serve adults needing 3.7 or 3.5 ASAM* levels of care; adults who can benefit from medical stabilization to engage in SUD treatment; and adults who can benefit from psychiatric and mental health stabilization to engage in SUD treatment. 16 x Burnside will offer a safe environment with 24-hour, full-time staff presence and monitoring. The anticipated average length of stay will be between 3-4 months. 

To learn more about 16 x Burnside Recovery Center, click here. 

About CCC

Located in Portland, Oregon, Central City Concern (CCC) provides a comprehensive continuum of affordable housing options integrated with direct social services including health care, recovery and employment. Founded in 1979, CCC has a staff of over 1,400 and an annual operating budget of $186 million. In 2024, CCC served nearly 16,000 individuals. Up to 30,000 people across the tri-county region are affected annually by homelessness.   

CCC is growing our ability to serve more members of our homeless community

April 29, 2025, Portland, OR -- Central City Concern (CCC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Tara Kirk as the new Chief Health Services Officer, CHSO. Ms. Kirk joins CCC from La Clinica in Medford, Oregon where she has served for the past twenty-three years, most recently as the Chief Operations Officer. In this role, Ms. Kirk was responsible for the full scope of day-to-day operations, including clinical services (medical, pharmacy, behavioral health, dental), support functions (call center, referrals, medical records, human resources and communications), as well as their community- based care programs. She was also deeply engaged in developing leaders across the organization. In 2023, La Clinica provided care to 25,103 of La Clinica’s 30,000 patients of record, across ten clinics and in nineteen schools. 

In her new role at CCC, Ms. Kirk will lead all of CCC’s Health Services Operations. Working in partnership with the clinical and operations leadership team, she will support service integration and delivery which comprehensively meets the needs of CCC patients and clients while driving improved outcomes for individuals and CCC’s service community. As the CHSO, she will directly support program and service-line sustainability and the evolution and ongoing business development of clinical service offerings, centering “Housing is Health” as an area of focus and growth.  

“The team and I are delighted Tara has chosen CCC to be her new work home and place of service,” says President and CEO Dr. Andy Mendenhall. “Tara brings more than two decades of health care operations expertise within a Federally Qualified Health Center environment serving vulnerable populations. She also brings a level and depth of curiosity, humility and creativity to her leadership, all of which will help both stabilize and grow integration of CCC services across our organization.”  

“I am truly inspired by Central City Concern ‘s comprehensive, compassionate approach to care,” says Ms. Kirk. “I am thrilled to support the mission, to learn from such a dedicated team, and to build meaningful relationships along the way.” Ms. Kirk holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Health Care Management from Western Governors University as well as several professional certifications. She is passionate about leadership development, having developed content and co-facilitated the La Clinica Leadership Academy. 

About CCC     

Located in Portland, Oregon, Central City Concern (CCC) provides a comprehensive continuum of affordable housing options integrated with direct social services including health care, recovery and employment. Founded in 1979, CCC has a staff of over 1,400 and an annual operating budget of $186 million. In 2024, CCC served nearly 16,000 individuals. Up to 30,000 people across the tri-county region are affected annually by homelessness. Learn more.