Multnomah County Bought a Shell of a Building for a Portland Mental Health Center. Was It Suckered?

Last year, when the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners voted to offload Wapato Jail, Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury pledged to learn from the expensive lesson.

The county had built the $58 million Wapato but never found the money to operate it. For 15 years, the county nonetheless continued to pay $300,000 a year to maintain the mothballed facility.

"Wapato has given me a great sense of humility about how this board's decisions will affect the future," Kafoury said before casting her vote April 12, 2018, to sell the building. "It has only deepened my resolve to learn from the past."

However, a little more than one year later, Multnomah County owns another piece of real estate without the funds to operate it or a detailed plan for what to do with it.

Read more: https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2019/05/15/multnomah-county-bought-a-shell-of-a-building-for-a-portland-mental-health-center-was-it-suckered/
(Williamette Week)