Taxpayers wondering how Rockwood Community Development Corporation won $6.8 million in state money to buy a derelict Best Western hotel in 2021 are unlikely to see why officials bestowed so much money on a nonprofit with a history of poor public disclosure.

The money came from Project Turnkey, a $125 million pot of cash doled out at the state’s behest by the Oregon Community Foundation, a private nonprofit, bypassing state agencies. The grant made Rockwood CDC and its founder, Brad Ketch, major figures in Oregon homeless services.

In his 2023 book, The Flourishing Community: A Story of Hope for America’s Distressed Places , Ketch writes that the money “signaled to everyone that we had arrived as a real player in community transformation.”

But, as WW has since reported , Ketch tuss

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