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 one of the founders of the Downtown Emergency Services Center, the nonprofit organization that received the third largest allocation of funds from the King County Regional Homeless 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 been a strong presence in Seattle homeless advocacy for decades. In addition to being one of the founders of the Downtown Emergency Services Center in 1979, Bloom also served on the board of directors for Seattle’s nonprofit weekly newspaper Real Change from 2011 to 2013, according to him. LinkedIn account.

He also ran for Seattle City Council in 2009, but lost in the general election.

Bloom, who is 82 and retired, says 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 speaking engagements, consulting and short-term courses in his fields. of interest.

The The Seattle Times reported that Microsoft notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a user who uploaded several illicit files to its database last March. Later in June, Seattle police detectives tracked down Bloom using his IP address and obtained a search warrant for his home in September.

Bloom admitted to detectives that he had been viewing child pornography for about three to four years.

He posted bail on September 24 after spending a day in jail.

Claire Tuohy-Morgan, communications manager for the Downtown Emergency Services Center, told The Center Square that the organization is aware of the criminal charges against Bloom and noted that she has had no connection with the organization for nearly 30 years .

“We are deeply saddened and disturbed by this news and are supporting the authorities in their investigation,” Tuohy-Morgan said in an email.

The Market Center has reached out to other Bloom affiliates, but has not received a response by the time of publication.