Rent Assistance Fraud Spotted on 14th Try

An affidavit filed in the case indicates James Hartley was able to collect 13 payments of as much as $21,960 before being clocked by a county worker.

A Northeast Portland neighborhood. (Joseph Blake, Jr.)
By Anthony Effinger

A grand jury last month indicted a man for stealing $246,000 in rental assistance funds from Multnomah County’s general fund by forging the signatures of at least a dozen applicants and directing the money to himself or his companies.

James Louise Hartley, 46, was also indicted on charges of possessing a firearm and dealing fentanyl and cocaine.

County officials touted the indictment in a press release, lauding an unnamed employee for noticing an unusual number of payments to one company. Court records identify the company as Precise Property Management Plus LLC, a firm managed by Hartley.

“We commend the vigilance of the Multnomah County employee who uncovered this suspected fraud,” county human services director Mohammad Bader said in a press release. “As a result of this case, we are taking further steps to strengthen our processes and further improve our safeguards.”

An affidavit filed in the case indicates Hartley was able to collect 13 payments of as much as $21,960 before being clocked by the county worker. The county didn’t return an email seeking an explanation why Hartley was successful so many times before getting caught.

Such fraud became commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the U.S. government rushed money to renters to keep them housed as unemployment swelled. Multnomah County and the network of nonprofits it works with have distributed more than $230 million in housing assistance funds in the past four years.

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