(The Center Square) – Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington is criticizing and discounting the reporting of an independent journalist who exposed issues within shelters run by CCEW, where homeless and often drug-addicted individuals are housed.
Kevin Dahlgren, a fellow with Discovery Institute posted a series of videos on X Monday, suggesting that Catholic Charities programs in Spokane, are contributing to the crime and disorder that small-business owners say is forcing them to close.
Linda Biel owns Urban Spa and told Dahlgren in the video the nearby homeless shelter run by CCEW is forcing her and others to close.
“This is a board of closed and relocated businesses in our area, due to the unmanaged crime, we are now on that board too,” Biel told Dahlgren while pointing to a poster board showing pictures of impacted businesses.
Former Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward told Dahlgren that Catholic Charities is to blame for much of the crime and business flight near their managed properties.
“That’s a huge congregation of the homeless and they tend to congregate outside,” said Woodward in the video.
Dahlgren worked in social services for nearly 30 years and is a trained drug and alcohol counselor.
He told The Center Square that in more recent years he saw the social services approach become politicized to the point there was zero accountability for addicts.
“That’s why I decided to get into independent journalism a few years ago… to raise awareness that we’re spending millions of dollars on this crisis, yet we’re not producing any measurable results that are actually going to help them, right?”
Dahlgren said he believes most people in the social service arena do believe they’re helping, but said providing addicts with drug kits and not expecting anything to change for them is anything but compassionate.
“When they decriminalized drugs, overdoses and deaths just skyrocketed. I had never found more people dying on the streets than I did over the last couple years. And it was absolutely tragic. It was shocking. It was a crazy time,” said Dahlgren.
“It was a perfect storm too, because it happened right kind of when COVID began, and the rise of fentanyl. So, imagine that perfect, horrible storm of decriminalizing drugs, introducing fentanyl, and having COVID. I was out there every day, and people were just dropping like flies, and I had witnessed well over 100 people die.”
Dahlgren told The Center Square he met a woman who was allegedly turned away from a CCEW shelter after operators learned she had spoken to him about conditions inside the property.
CCEW denied that the woman was turned away and responded via email to The Center Square’s request for an interview about residents and neighbor business complaints.
The Director of Communications & Marketing for Catholic Charities Eastern Washington Dave Meany sent an email which read in part:
“We will not be responding to whatever story you’re doing on Mr. Dahlgren’s obvious guerilla journalism tactic that’s intended to distort facts, promote falsehoods & unsubstantiated claims, stir up rage and clicks, and attack CCEW.”
Meany suggested Dahlgren tried to sneak into one of their shelters and said they had heard from local leaders who were “tricked” into doing interviews with Dahlgren under the pretense of a story about agencies helping young people.
“This is not journalism. Sadly, this is typical of the organization Mr. Dahlgren works for, as it is well known for its deplorable content, which promotes the criminalization and vilification of the poor and vulnerable for political purposes,” said Meany.
He concluded by adding: “We will not be responding to any more of your inquiries.”
Dahlgren said any suggestion he tried to sneak into a shelter is entirely untrue, and added that every local leader he spoke to knew exactly what he was investigating.
He said those officials’ comments will be included in his next installment on social media, as will interviews with other CCEW residents.
Dahlgren said he hopes his reporting will put pressure on local governments to ensure that taxpayer money is being used wisely and not being spent to extend the drug crisis, while lives continue to be lost every day.
“What we can do is we can require oversight. We can require metrics and measurable results. We can say we just want to see if you are being the most efficient to help these people in the most productive way. We want to see where every dollar is spent,” he said.