No plans to investigate massive Seattle homeless scandal, ensuring it happens again

The man tasked with clearing the homeless camp at a Seattle school asked an addict to “pop” him with meth. Its organization was hardly checked. And there are no plans for an investigation, the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH learned. Both agencies that have worked with the group place responsibility for mutual investigations.

Mike Mathias, of the nonprofit Anything Helps for the Homeless, was hired by Seattle Public Schools (SPS) to work with the approximately 70 homeless living in the controversial Bitter Lake camp near Broadview-Thompson K-8. He received coveted housing vouchers from the King County’s Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) to help bring people into homes.

But about a month after starting work, Mathias admitted to the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH that he had asked a homeless addict to inject him with meth. Now he is facing a number of serious allegations from volunteers within his own organization. These include using charitable funds – some of which came from taxpayers’ money – to buy drugs to feed one’s own habits and pressuring homeless women to keep quiet. He denies these allegations.

Instead of taking this situation seriously, neither SPS nor KCRHA commit to investigate. In fact, both organizations dismiss the blame and insist that they are not the ones to investigate. This ensures that the sometimes complex work of getting people off the streets will result in a similar situation again.

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Examination? What review?

There does not appear to be any scrutiny Anything Helps underwent prior to selecting volunteers to evacuate the camp.

In fact, at the time of the announcement that they would lead the Herculean task of evicting chronic homeless people from the longtime camp, many local activists had never heard of the group. They didn’t know much about the group or Mathias because he had only just started the group in March 2021, four months before he was signed for the work.

At the time, he was the only person leading the group and had no full-time clerks linking homeless people with shelter or services.

SPS, who owns the property on which the warehouse is located, was unclear how or why Anything Helps was hired to do this. Nevertheless, Mathias got down to work and received 14 vouchers for accommodation from the KCRHA. However, an email reveals that the KCRHA leadership barely checked other than to verify that Anything Helps is registered as a nonprofit.

KCRHA Program Performance Manager Alex Ebrahimi emailed Mathias on December 7th to inform him that they have stopped referring housing applications from his organization. But he also asked a series of questions that revealed that KCRHA knew little about the group. Ebrahimi even admits that “we have no information about the structure of your organization”.

“Please name your board of directors or another organizational supervisor with contact information and your occupation with your name and an organization chart,” demanded Ebrahimi. “How does your board of directors become aware of complaints against you or your organization? How are such complaints dealt with? What steps are being taken to investigate and deal with complaints or allegations of inappropriateness made by members of your organization or yourself? “

Examination? What investigation?

When the allegations against Mathias came to light, initial reports said that KCRHA was “investigating”. But that wasn’t true.

“Seattle Public Schools owns the property and has contracted Anything Helps, so they will lead the investigation,” a KCRHA spokesperson for the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH said via email on December 8th.

But SPS is not leading the investigation. That day, a spokesman for SPS said, “This is the first time I’ve heard of an investigation.”

Weeks later and nothing has changed. Neither SPS nor KCRHA are investigating the claims made by Mathias’ colleagues.

A SPS spokesman said “we are not investigating” although “that may change” without setting a date. But it won’t change.

“Assistant Superintendent Rob Gannon is working with SPS Legal Advisor to assess the situation and will be communicating with the Anything Helps Board this month. It is the district’s position that Anything Helps, as a state-registered not-for-profit organization, is responsible for investigating allegations made against its executive director, “the spokesman told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH this week.

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Internal reflection? What internal reflection?

Will the selection process used by either organization be reviewed before taxpayers’ money and other resources are entrusted to a nonprofit? It doesn’t seem like that.

The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH asked the KCRHA spokesman if there would be an internal review to ensure properly reviewed organizations receive institutional support in the future.

“Again, Anything Helps had a relationship with the Seattle Public Schools to work at Bitter Lake, and the goal of the RHA was to help them help these people find accommodation,” the spokesman replied. “As the leading organization in this camp, they were given the opportunity to make recommendations so that the people living there could apply for vouchers and move from the homeless to homes.”

Did it happen again? Yes, it will happen again.

Obviously, it is rare for the person hired to help the homeless to see personal failure in this way. Obviously it can happen. It is unclear how much verification can realistically be done for this particular problem.

However, a review can be done to ensure that an organization has a track record of performing major inventory cleanups before being given the task. The SPS leadership botched the selection of the nonprofit, and since they subsequently refused to vacate the warehouse until vacant apartments were available, it makes sense. The school district was only there for the vouchers and cared little about how the cleanup would go.

You can also review the organizational structure so you can be sure that they will be treated appropriately if allegations arise. KCRHA has not conducted a meaningful review. They were handing out vouchers to an organization that was unable to deal effectively with internal mismanagement. KCRHA did not act as a responsible steward of our tax money.

That neither SPS nor KCRHA seem interested in an internal review of what happened and why, suggests that they hope that this controversy will simply go away. But without addressing the way in which both organizations lost the ball, it will almost certainly happen again.

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3–6pm on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow @JasonRantz on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Check back frequently for more news and analysis.