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DATE: June 12
FROM: Portland lawyer John DiLorenzo
TO: Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson
SUBJECT: DiLorenzo asked Vega Pederson to audit the nonprofit contractor that manages the county’s downtown Behavioral Health Resource Center, which offers homeless Portlanders a respite from the weather and basic sanitary services.
The target of DiLorenzo’s letter: The Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon.
“Although my clients have voiced many concerns about the operation of the BHRC and its impact on their businesses and the safety of their employees and customers, one ongoing concern has related to the relative lack of transparency in the management of the BHRC,” DiLorenzo wrote. “I request that you undertake a full audit of the organization so the public can be aware of the manner in which [it] is devoting the nearly $2.2 million of taxpayer funds which you are providing for their services.”
The county’s center shut down temporarily this spring after allegations that staff from the various contractors working there were having sex with each other and using and distributing drugs. The center reopened April 17.
DiLorenzo tells WW he’s representing downtown property owners in the letter but declined to name them. In it, he asked that the county audit the nonprofit after it did not immediately furnish him with copies of its most recent 990 tax returns after he requested them in May. (One of the conditions the Internal Revenue Service places on nonprofits is that they make their tax returns available to the public upon request.) On Monday afternoon, shortly after DiLorenzio sent his letter, the nonprofit posted its tax returns on its website.
DiLorenzo says his request to the county still stands: “These returns don’t tell us specifically how they are using the money to implement a policy.”
The nonprofit’s executive director, Janie Gullickson, tells WW that it’s “disappointing to me that the automatic reaction is that we must not have 990s or the implication that we must be mishandling public funding simply because an email or two was missed.”
WHAT IT MEANS: DiLorenzo might sue on behalf of his downtown clients.
Although DiLorenzo wouldn’t name them, he has in recent years represented some of the city’s largest property owners—and some of those past clients own buildings within the blocks surrounding the county’s day center. (He also represented the 10 Portlanders with disabilities who successfully sued City Hall last year to remove tent encampments from blocking sidewalks.)
The letter is not necessarily a precursor to litigation, but it is a warning that downtown property owners are unhappy with the center and may soon pursue legal action.
“I have a whole variety of downtown business interests that are very concerned about the management of the BHRC. There’s still a lot of property crime happening,” DiLorenzo tells WW. “I am very concerned about government delegation to nonprofit organizations that operate under the cloak of darkness with taxpayer funds.”
WHY IT MATTERS: It points to a larger problem of neighborhood frustrations and former deep dysfunction within the center.
Emails obtained by WW in April show a flurry of sexual and criminal allegations flew in the days prior to the center’s March shutdown.
“It was just brought to my attention...that yesterday, an employee of [security] confronted a [janitor] that is dating the coordinator and suggested that the [janitor] should ‘check your girl’ accusing her of spreading rumors about the safety partner,” one employee wrote March 27. In other words, a security guard threatened a janitor because his paramour, the site coordinator, was alleging wrongdoing by guards.
The following day, staff traded emails about a different allegation: an exchange of narcotics between a guard and an employee who works with the homeless.
And then, on March 29, an outgoing employee at the center alleged sexual activity between employees of all three county contractors inside the building.
The center shut down for three weeks. The investigation into the allegations is ongoing.
But prior to the shutdown, as WW wrote in a March 1 story, surrounding businesses were aggrieved by the camping, crime and drug use that had collected around the perimeter of the center. They claimed vandalism, threats of violence to employees, and weapons wielded by people frequenting the day center threatened the viability of their businesses.
There were murmurs of potential litigation, but nothing happened in the two months since.
Until now. DiLorenzo is the chosen fighter for downtown real estate moguls, and has successfully sued the city in a number of high-profile cases in recent years. DiLorenzo’s Monday letter is the strongest indication yet that litigation over the county’s day center is brewing.