Prominent Seattle homeless advocate faces child pornography charges

SEATTLE— Disturbing allegations involving a longtime Seattle homeless advocate detail new charges involving child pornography spanning several years.

David Bloom, former chairman of the board for Real Change, is accused of sex crimes involving children, specifically possession of child pornography.

These charges include one count of trafficking in images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and one count of possession of images of minors. Real change is a nonprofit newspaper that “gives voice to low-income and homeless people while taking action for economic, social and racial justice.”

Jim Fuda of Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound is well-versed in the world of missing and exploited children and is urging action in the fight against child pornography.

“It’s pretty sad when you focus on that, and you know it’s illegal, the position of trust, and you abuse that right,” Fuda said. In the following statement from Real News, the organization addressed the charges against Bloom:

“We are deeply disturbed and saddened to hear about the charges against David Bloom. While we have not had ties to Mr. Bloom for several years, we have seen his name on the list in connection with anti-housing measures such as the backlash against Initiative 137 and Seattle Social Housing Developer alongside former Real Change Executive Director Tim Harris and others no longer affiliated with Real Change.

Based on our organizational records, his time on the Board of Directors was 2011 – 2013, and his last contribution to our newspaper was in April 2012. Mr. Bloom was connected to Real Change’s advocacy through his involvement with the Interfaith Task Force on Homelessness. , and we as an organization have not been associated with him for more than 10 years.

In recent years, Real Change has undergone a major change in organizational leadership. This has led to greater responsibility towards our community, our suppliers and the most vulnerable members of our society. We remain committed to our values ​​and mission, and wish justice and healing for the alleged victims affected by Mr. Bloom – as well as for survivors of sexual abuse around the world.”

Seattle Police Department (SPD) detectives claimed they found multiple images of children, some as young as five years old, engaging in sexual acts alone and with adult men and women.

According to court documents Microsoft reported this to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children According to court documents, a user uploaded multiple files containing images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Documents state in May and August, SPD detectives obtained search warrants to search the IP address data of Internet provider Comcast. Court documents revealed that Comcast provided investigators with Bloom’s name, his North Seattle address and his phone number.

On September 20, SPD arrested Bloom and brought him back to his retirement community condominium, where two detectives questioned him, according to charging documents. The interview was recorded by a police body camera, and detectives said Bloom provided them with the passwords for a laptop computer and admitted to uploading child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and usually deleting the images.

Bloom was booked into the King County Jail and later charged with the two charges.