BEND, Ore. — Before detectives arrested Kevin Dahlgren, a former homeless services specialist with the city of Gresham, officials in Deschutes County say he was hired to deliver a controversial report on the county's homeless population, according to reporting from KGW news partner KTVZ.
Dahlgren is accused of misusing his position as a Gresham city employee, stealing thousands of dollars and committing identity theft. A Multnomah County Sheriff's Office investigation centered around Dahlgren's use of a city-issued procurement card, an official source told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
"I believe if reference checks would've been done with the city of Gresham, it would've come up that Mr. Dahlgren was on administrative leave — and that should have been a signal to anybody that there was an issue with this individual," Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang told KTVZ.
Tony DeBone, Deschutes County board chair, revealed in August that the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office had paid Dahlgren nearly $19,000 for a report on the county's annual Point-in-Time count of the homeless population. Service providers and elected leaders, including Chang, said they weren't notified of Dahlgren's work with the sheriff's office and questioned the accuracy of his final report.
The 2023 Point-in-Time count for Deschutes County identified more than 1,600 people in various states of homelessness, and government agencies usually caution that these federally mandated surveys are inevitably going to be undercounts. Months later, Dahlgren estimated that the number was under 700, KTVZ reported.
"The procurement process for this contract I think was shoddy. The scope of work within this contract I think was shoddy. The work product that was released was shoddy, and it cost us $19,000," Chang said.
Dahlgren's report seemed geared toward promoting "inaccurate narratives about the homeless" to support his own policy agenda, Chang added. Dahlgren has amassed a sizable following on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, where he frequently posts videos of homeless people, often accompanied by his own opinions on "empowering not enabling" them and criticisms of progressive policies. As of Tuesday afternoon, Dahlgren had over 25,000 followers.
"The scope of work for this contract basically said, 'Redo the Point-in-Time count and give us a story, a report, a narrative about homelessness in our area,'" Chang said. "I would say that this contract, and many other things that have been done by the county or promoted by the county in the last 6 months or a year have been distractions from helping us solve the problem of homelessness."
KTVZ interviewed Dahlgren in May, when he was trying to get hired as a homeless consultant for Deschutes County. He'd resigned from his Gresham position in March after the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office began its investigation. In July, KTVZ reported on a family who credited Dahlgren with helping them relocate from a major Bend-area homeless camp to Alaska.
A Multnomah County grand jury approved a 19-count indictment of Dahlgren last week, leading to his arrest on Tuesday. An investigation into Dahlgren is ongoing, and the Multnomah County District Attorney's office said that more victims have been identified but not yet located. Anyone who has been in contact with Dahlgren in his capacity as an outreach worker is asked to contact MCSO Detective Dylan Lerch at dylan.lerch@mcso.us.
