Portland city staff spent months coordinating with the PR firm for the city's largest homeless services contractor to manage its public image, even as at least 156 misconduct complaints piled up at its shelter sites, public records obtained by the Portland Mercury show.

The records reveal that Portland Solutions, the city unit overseeing Portland's shelter system, shared draft media responses with Urban Alchemy's PR firm Riff City Strategies, alerted the firm to publication dates, recommended journalists the city believed would write favorable stories, and connected the firm's president to Mayor Keith Wilson's deputy chief of staff.

Urban Alchemy, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that began operating Portland shelters in July 2023, holds a five-year, $90.4 million city contract through 2028.

At least 156 complaints were filed with the Portland Ombudsman's office between July 2023 and May 2026, alleging staff drug use and dealing, sexual harassment, sexual assault, theft of guests' belongings, and retaliation against those who filed complaints. The records also show many complaints related to the city's 120-day stay limits at temporary sites, which Wilson began enforcing in February 2026.

Mayor's office involvement

The coordination reached into Wilson's office. On May 8, the same day housing committee chair Candace Avalos and full-council committee chair Sameer Kanal issued a memo requesting more oversight of Urban Alchemy's contract, city emergency humanitarian director Brandy Westerman introduced Riff City Strategies president Jess Montejano to the city's top spokesperson. That spokesperson then connected Montejano by phone to Taylor Zajonc, Wilson's deputy chief of staff.

By June 3, Portland Solutions and Wilson's top staff were drafting letters for what internal records called an "Urban Alchemy comms project." Riff City Strategies joined days later.

In a June 3 message to a coalition of Black clergy, Zajonc wrote that "Urban Alchemy has been subjected to a coordinated campaign to disrupt and potentially remove its operations from Portland." On June 8, Zajonc connected Montejano to two pastors and mapped the political landscape for the PR firm, identifying councilors Green, Kanal and Avalos as "the most outspoken skeptics" and Councilor Ryan as "a longstanding supporter."

About a week later, Portland Solutions spokesperson Laura Rude introduced Montejano to city communications staffers to assemble a video production team for promotional content about Urban Alchemy.

Police refused

When Urban Alchemy COO Bayron Wilson emailed Portland Police Bureau Commander Jacob Jensen on April 2 requesting collaboration on a media story promoting the nonprofit, PPB spokesperson Mike Benner declined in an April 3 email. Benner wrote that he was "not sure it's the place of PPB to wade into what amounts to promoting a business, especially a business that's mentioned in at least one criminal investigation, if not more."

Meanwhile, Rude and Montejano co-authored an April 24 statement to KATU in a shared Google document, attributing the high number of complaints to the mental health challenges of homeless residents.

Grievance failures acknowledged

At a July 7 City Council committee meeting, Urban Alchemy representative Ian Clark-Johnson acknowledged the nonprofit had failed to track its own grievance policy for years.

"There was a lapse on our end as it relates to the policy. We had a policy, we were utilizing it, but we stopped. We were starting to lose some of those grievances as they came through and we weren't tracking them properly," Clark-Johnson told the committee.

The city referred many grievances back to Urban Alchemy for internal investigation. Rude declined to provide documentation of specific cases, citing privacy concerns. Montejano declined to say how many employees were terminated or placed on leave due to complaints, citing HR confidentiality. Mayor Wilson's office did not respond to the Mercury's questions about the coordination.

Portland Solutions meets with Urban Alchemy and Riff City Strategies every other week to discuss communications needs, according to Rude. No next council vote or oversight deadline on the contract has been publicly scheduled.