(Spence Pauley, The Center Square) A founder of one of Seattle‘s largest homeless service providers has been charged with the possession of child pornography.
David Bloom is an American Baptist minister and one of the founders of the Downtown Emergency Service Center, the nonprofit that received the third largest funding allocation from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority with $15.6 million this year.
On Sept. 23, Bloom was charged by King County prosecutors with two counts, including second-degree possession of child pornography.
Bloom’s bail was set at $5,000.
Bloom has had a strong presence in homeless advocacy work in Seattle for decades. Along with being one of the founders of the Downtown Emergency Service Center in 1979, Bloom was also a board member for the nonprofit Seattle weekly newspaper Real Change from 2011-2013, according to his LinkedIn account.
He also ran for Seattle City Council in 2009, but lost in the general election.
Bloom, who is 82 years old and retired, states on his LinkedIn page that he is currently an adjunct faculty member at Antioch University in Seattle, where he says he is still available for guest speaking, consulting, and short-term courses in his areas of interest.
The Seattle Times reported that Microsoft notified the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children of a user uploading several illicit files to its database last March. Later in June, Seattle police detectives located Bloom using his IP address and got a warrant to search his home in September.
Bloom admitted to detectives that he had been viewing child pornography for about three to four years.
He posted bond on Sept. 24 after spending a day in jail.
Downtown Emergency Service Center Communications Manager Claire Tuohy-Morgan told The Center Square that the organization is aware of the criminal charges against Bloom and noted that he has had no connection with the organization for nearly 30 years.
“We are deeply saddened and disturbed by this news, and we support the authorities in their investigation,” Tuohy-Morgan said in an email.
The Center Square reached out to other organizations affiliated with Bloom, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
