The state of Oregon is suing a religious nonprofit it once paid millions of taxpayer dollars to take care of the state’s most vulnerable children.
The lawsuit focuses on one of the smaller contracts the state had with Dynamic Life, a nonprofit based in Marion County.
The $1.3 million contract was so that Dynamic Life could create a mobile child-caring agency. The idea was to offer services to families in crisis in their homes in order to avoid having to remove kids and teenagers and put them in hotels.
But the lawsuit filed last week alleges that, despite the state sending $966,666.64 to the nonprofit, none of the “specific deliverables” or “anything else of any value” to the state was received.
The Oregon Department of Human Services building is pictured in Salem, Ore., on Sept. 26, 2019.
Bradley W. Parks / OPB
Dynamic Life Inc. was founded by a former pastor based in Keizer, Oregon. Fueled by taxpayer dollars, it grew quickly.
The lawsuit filed Jan. 6 alleges that Dynamic Life’s founder, Nathan Webber, and his son Josiah, entered the contract with the state through a “series of misrepresentations and false promises as to Dynamic Life’s experience and capabilities, when they had no intent or ability to actually perform, and used the funds obtained from ODHS for their own personal benefit.”
Neither Webber nor the state responded to a request for comment.
An OPB investigation published in 2023 first raised questions about the nonprofit, which had several state contracts at the time. One of the contracts was to pay the nonprofit nearly $3,000 per day for every child placed in their care.
At the time, the state was paying foster parents about $795 per month. The state had paid nearly $8 million of taxpayer dollars when OPB started asking questions.
Despite initially pushing back on the public revelations about the nonprofit, the state cancelled all contracts shortly after OPB’s story and stopped placing foster kids in Dynamic Life’s care.
The lawsuit is the latest iteration of the state reversing course with the nonprofit.
The state also allowed Dynamic Life to rent unlicensed short-term rentals where they housed groups of foster care kids and offered little oversight, both over the state contracts and over the well-being of the children who were placed in care.
At the time of OPB’s initial report, the state could not say definitively whether the Dynamic Life staff working with the kids placed in care had passed appropriate background checks.
The state has struggled for years to find appropriate placements for children and teenagers placed in its care. It’s been sued over its practice of placing kids in hotel rooms. As part of a class-action lawsuit against the state’s Department of Human Services, a “neutral expert” is now overseeing the system and expected to help shepherd the agency through changes.
ODHS, which is responsible for overseeing the care of about 5,000 children placed in its care, is also undergoing a leadership change.
The state Senate also recently confirmed Liesl Wendt to be the next director of the agency.
Gov. Tina Kotek nominated Wendt after Fariborz Pakseresht, the long-time director, retired in October
