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Multnomah County is struggling to replace shelter space lost when accounting discrepancies prompted it to stop paying rent for homeless families at Rockwood Tower, an old Best Western in Gresham that became a family shelter thanks to a $6.8 million grant of state taxpayer money.
The county had planned to fill the gap with another hotel conversion, sending families to a 50-room Days Inn & Suites on Southeast Stark Street, but the property owner is facing “unforeseen financing challenges,” according to an email sent to city managers by County Commissioner Vince Jones-Dixon on March 11. “Although we cannot provide the family shelter units on the original schedule, we are focused on finding a location that minimizes service delays and keeps these vital family units,” Jones-Dixon wrote.
The county faces a shelter crunch because it stopped doing business with East County Housing LLC, alleging the contractor had sought reimbursement for unapproved expenses and double-counted costs.
East County Housing is one of several related nonprofits founded by Brad Ketch, a former tech executive who turned to social services. Ketch became a player in the shelter business in 2021, when the Oregon Community Foundation granted him $6.8 million in state funds to buy the Best Western and turn it into housing.
Last year, East County Housing used the building as collateral for $3.4 million in loans from Seattle-based WaFD Bank. Ketch planned to use some of the money to build a 56-unit apartment building in Gresham, but withdrew plans in January, the same month that WaFD foreclosed on the loans citing “financial strain” put on East County Housing when it lost its shelter contract with Multnomah County.
JFP Partners, the firm in charge of managing Rockwood Tower during the foreclosure, is helping residents find new housing and will sell the building in the near future, JFP owner Joe Fanelli said in an email to WW.
Any new owner must use it for housing or return the $6.8 million to taxpayers, according to the Oregon Community Foundation.
