Prominent homeless advocate in Seattle charged with possession of child pornography

A founder of one of Seattle’s largest homeless service providers has been charged with possession of child pornography.

David Bloom is an American Baptist minister and a founding member of the Downtown Emergency Service Center, the nonprofit organization that received the aid the third largest funding allocation from the King County Regional Homelessness Authority with $15.6 million this year.

On September 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 in Seattle for decades. In addition to being a founding member of the Downtown Emergency Service Center in 1979, Bloom also served as a board member of the Seattle nonprofit weekly Real Change from 2011 to 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, lists 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 speakers, consulting and short-term courses in his field. important.

The The Seattle Times reports this that last March, Microsoft notified the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children of a user who uploaded several illegal files to its database. Later in June, Seattle Police Department detectives located Bloom using his IP address and obtained a warrant to search his home in September.

Bloom admitted to investigators that he had been looking at child pornography for about three to four years.

He posted bond on September 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, noting that he has had no connection with the organization in nearly 30 years.

“We are deeply saddened and disturbed by this news, and we support 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 time of publication.