Salem Weekly Fact Check

Revised: January 2019

By Sarah Owens and Michael Livingston

Salem Weekly

Salem Weekly yesterday published a rehash of a story it published August 3rd about The ARCHES Project moving to 615 Commercial Street NE with the addition of an unsourced detail that appears to be an attempt to answer the main question raised in this recent blog, which is whether the state approved the use of state funds to acquire the property. 

In the rehash, Salem Weekly and author Delana Beaton assert that the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department approved the use of $.5M in state funds to purchase the  building in February of 2017.  We asked Delana where she got that information, and whether she had been provided any supporting documentation.  She did not respond.

If Salem Weekly's assertion were true, it would means that the Mid Willamette Community Action Agency (MWVCAA) sought approval from the state before getting approval from its board of directors.  That would be contrary to ORS 458.505(4)(c), which requires Community Action Agency boards to approve "all contracts, grant applications and budgets and operational policies of the agency."

A little research would have taken Salem Weekly to MWVCAA records, which show that Executive Director Jon Reeves did not seek board approval to use state funds for a down payment until March of this year.  The building he was wanting permission to buy at that time was not 615 Commercial Street, and there was no mention of needing, much less having received, state approval of the purchase, which is telling because the state required both an application and a detailed project proposal for approval.  Reeves did not even decide to buy 615 Commercial Street until June 2017, so OHCS couldn't have approved the purchase in February.  

As for the rest of the article, the Salem Weekly may well be correct that The ARCHES Project is serving more sack lunches and assessing more clients in its new location, and they may well have organized a 3-day cooling center (offsite at 770 Commercial St.), but it was not "in the midst of major renovation work", which hasn't yet begun.