In late summer and early fall, when “homeless consultant” Kevin Dahlgren submitted his purported “Point in Time” count, local service providers and some members of the public were already concerned. Not only did the report skew widely from the counts and reports compiled by a host of service providers and volunteers during the more formal Point in Time Count, but with Dahlgren’s reportedly overblown statistics about drug use among the houseless population, and his emphasis on the number of people experiencing homelessness in the area who were “not from here,” it began to look like Dahlgren had been hired by the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office to craft a narrative that would support efforts to criminalize and dehumanize the houseless population in the area.
The notion of using public funds to help the sheriff craft a narrative was bad enough. Then the situation got worse.
Cops arrested Dahlgren in Multnomah County at the end of October, accusing him of theft, gross misconduct and identity theft connected to his work as a “homeless consultant” in Gresham, Oregon. These allegations are levied against the same guy who has repeatedly claimed it’s his mission to disrupt the “homeless industrial complex.” What irony, since it appears he’s profited from the “complex” more than most.
Here in Deschutes County, Dahlgren’s contract with DCSO was abruptly ended at the end of August, when deputies reportedly got wind of his troubles in the Portland metro area. By that time, however, he’d taken some $18,000 in contracted funds for his shoddy report – and that’s not to mention any per diem costs Dahlgren may have incurred on taxpayers’ dime. We’ve filed a public records request to determine how much more in county dollars the king of “poverty porn” might have racked up in expenses here in Deschutes County.
All of this could, in theory, be chalked up to ignorant folly on the part of Sheriff Shane Nelson and some of his deputies. They can point to his abrupt dismissal in late August as proof of trying to do the right thing. Absent any whiff of illegal action by Dahlgren in Deschutes County, the whole mess may simply fade into the background, with taxpayers unhappy yet unable to recoup the $18,000-plus-per-diem costs that Dahlgren racked up here. And yet right around the same time he was inking a deal with Dahlgren, Nelson asked the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners for an increase in the DCSO budget. The past may be the past, but going forward, the county commission needs to prioritize more oversight and accountability from the sheriff’s office – including paying heed to where exactly funds are being spent.
Soon, there will be a literal “new sheriff in town.” Nelson is not running for the seat again, and two current employees of the DCSO have announced plans to run for sheriff in 2024. While the two candidates do not appear to march in lockstep, both have been employed and have operated under Nelson, around whom a legacy of corruption has hung in the air. The public has a role to play in ensuring accountability and oversight for the sheriff’s office – but it’s essential that the county commissioners do so, too.
The sheriff works for all of us, but county commissioners Patti Adair, Phil Chang and Tony DeBone have the power to demand that the new person comes correct, tries to work in tandem – rather than at odds — with the rest of the hard-working people addressing homelessness in the area, and perhaps most importantly, doesn’t spend our hard-earned tax dollars on useless efforts like the one that just happened with Dahlgren.
This article appears in Source Weekly November 9, 2023.
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Our local houseless-services coalition, which conducts the annual point-in-time count, may be under-reporting mental illness and addiction. Their numbers are just too low.
The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority conducts the annual point-in-time count for the LA area. This service provider interpreted the results and determined that 29% of people living on the streets reported, or were observed to have, a mental illness and/or substance abuse disorder.
The LA Times, examining the same data, found 67%.
You can read the 2019 LA Times article here:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2…
Houseless people deserve our compassion but we must be realistic about the challenges that many of them face.
The % of Deschutes County homeless using drugs is extremely high as is the % “not from here”.