Liana Hernandez has grim memories of her family’s eight-month stay at Rockwood Tower, the motel-turned-shelter that a former technology executive bought with $6.8 million of taxpayer money in 2021 after reinventing himself as a social service provider.

Breakfast was one packet of instant oatmeal, she says. Lunch was Cup Noodles, and dinner was a Banquet brand frozen TV dinner ($1.68 at Walmart). That was the menu every day.

“Once in a blue moon, we got a corn dog,” Hernandez says.

Two other former residents confirmed the menu. At one point, a community health worker at Rockwood Tower suggested contracting with Stone Soup PDX, a nonprofit that delivers scratch-made meals to people in need. The price tag would have been $40,000 for six meals a week for about 140 people, according to a for

See Full Page