Letter to Council Re NO Vote for Urban Alchemy

Dear Council Members,

We are reaching out regarding the proposed contracts with Urban Alchemy (UA) coming before City Council on Monday (12/8) to ask you to vote no. 

If you research UA and their track record in other cities, it wouldn’t have taken long to find the insurmountable evidence of corruption and illegal activity that has resulted in UA facing more than 20 court cases and ongoing legal actions (including seven PAGA complaints) in Cities across the U.S. since 2020, costing cities that employed them millions of dollars in settlements, making them a huge liability that puts at risk unhoused people, their own employees, and the public at large. 

These lawsuits primarily involve sexual harassment and discrimination, employee misconduct (including drug dealing and assault), labor code violations, and lobbying rule breaches. 

  • Sexual Harassment and Discrimination: Multiple lawsuits have been filed by former female employees alleging a supervisor engaged in graphic sexual harassment and used his position to promise promotions or housing in exchange for sexual attention. One supervisor was accused of performing graphic sexual acts on an employee. Additionally a transgender activist settled a lawsuit with the city of San Francisco and UA over alleged civil rights violations when she was asked to leave a public plaza while feeding birds and praying.
  • Employee Misconduct and Assault: UA employees have physically assaulted residents, dealt methamphetamine, and had sexual relations with individuals in their care at encampments in Sausalito and other locations. One former employee was charged with attempted murder in a shooting incident that occurred during a work break. 
  • Labor Violations: UA settled a class-action lawsuit for nearly $1 million in 2023 over allegations it failed to pay overtime wages, did not provide proper breaks, and violated minimum wage laws. Other lawsuits have alleged similar labor code violations.
  • Lobbying Violations: The Portland City Auditor’s office found that Urban Alchemy violated city lobbying regulations in 2022 by not registering or reporting lobbying activities before being awarded a major contract. 

Here’s a chronological list of lawsuits and other significant legal actions against UA:

  • 2020
    • December (San Francisco): Neutall v. Urban Alchemy, the first class-action lawsuit, was filed. It alleged various labor violations, including wage theft, failure to pay overtime, and failure to provide required meal and rest breaks.
  • 2021
    • January 25 (San Francisco): Angel Gulley v. Urban Alchemy et al.: Lawsuit involving wrongful termination and other employment issues.
    • August (San Francisco): Reyes v. Urban Alchemy, another class-action lawsuit, was filed on similar grounds as the Neutall case, alleging failure to pay overtime and provide breaks.
    • October 21 (San Francisco): Strickland v. Urban Alchemy was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The plaintiff, a transgender woman, alleged that Urban Alchemy employees and San Francisco police violated her civil rights by ordering her to leave a public plaza while she was praying and feeding birds.
  • 2022
    • February 15 (Sausalito): Deschamps v. City of Sausalito et al was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Deschamps, resident of a sanctioned encampment managed by UA, was physically assaulted and hospitalized by an UA employee in retaliation for speaking to the media about issues within the camp, then subsequently evicted. The lawsuit included claims from several residents thatUA employees were involved in dealing methamphetamine and sexually exploiting women living at the camp. It also alleged negligence in hiring practices and failure to properly supervise and train its staff. The case was moved to federal court because it involved federal civil rights law issues, and a separate, related lawsuit by another resident, Arthur Bruce, led to a federal judge issuing restraining orders against two specific UA workers based on sexual assault and stalking. 
    • March 27 (Portland): An UA employee, Kaesha Green, was arrested in November 2025 and accused of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the death of Shaani Mohamed in 2022. 
    • November (San Francisco): An UA worker shot a man outside a homeless shelter managed by the nonprofit on Post Street. This employee was later charged with attempted murder.
  • 2023
    • Throughout the year: seven PAGA complaints were active against UA, alleging various California Labor Code violations.
    • July 27 (San Francisco): UA settled a major class-action lawsuit (likely the consolidated Neutall and Reyes cases) that alleged the organization “systematically failed to correctly calculate and record overtime compensation” and provide breaks for over 450 employees.
    • October 3 (approx.): A new lawsuit was filed alleging similar labor violations and unfair competition law breaches.
    • December (San Francisco): Lynette Broussard, a former employee, filed a lawsuit alleging a supervisor, Tracey Webb, sexually harassed her and retaliated when she reported the conduct to HR. 
  • 2024
    • January (LA): LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia launched an investigation into UA after a video circulated online showing one of their employees spraying a sidewalk with water, soaking an unhoused person who was kneeling on the ground, scrambling to gather their belongings in the cold night air
    • February 8 (Sausalito): Arthur Bruce filed a federal pro se (without a lawyer) lawsuit which was later formalized as a RICO case regarding a “criminal syndicate within Urban Alchemy” engaged in drug dealing (methamphetamine), violence, and sexual exploitation of women at the Sausalito camp.
    • March (San Francisco): A second female employee, Carrie Myles, filed a separate lawsuit alleging graphic sexual harassment by the same supervisor, Tracey Webb, and multiple incidents of assault. UA transferred Webb to an Oregon site after initial complaints.
    • May 1 (Portland): The Portland City Auditor issued a warning letter (not a lawsuit, but a formal legal finding) that UA violated city lobbying regulations in 2022 by failing to register and report activities.
    • July 3: The Arthur Bruce case was officially recorded as Bruce v. Urban Alchemy et al in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Case No. 3:2024cv04029) after being removed from state court.
  • 2025
    • September 5 (Austin): The City of Austin, TX refused to renew its shelter management contracts with UA upon discovering that UA staff had manipulated data. Five staff members “misrepresented Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) exit dates and records” to make the program appear more efficient or successful at placing clients into housing than it actually was.
    • October 6 (San Francisco): Marc Simpson v. Urban Alchemy, A California Corporation et al. (Case No. CGC25629898). A new case was filed in San Francisco Superior Courts alleging wrongful termination.

This criminal track record simply cannot be ignored, as it puts the City of Denver and its constituents at great risk. Hiring Urban Alchemy now would not help rebuild trust with the community following the poor performance of Salvation Army that led to their contracts being terminated, and will certainly lead to legal pitfalls for Denver and potentially millions of dollars in settlements.

Furthermore, one of the contracts they are being considered for is for the role of “ambassadors” for $3million. Several of the above lawsuits and legal complaints specifically relate to UA’s “ambassadors” in public spaces and encampments, including:

  • Assault
  • Harassment
  • Civil rights violations
  • Acting as an arm of law enforcement/security without proper licensing required for private security firms, leading to lack of proper training/accreditation for the roles performed

$3million out of the City budget to duplicate services currently provided by other City agencies is not only dangerous given their troubled history, but also redundant, and a waste of much needed resources.

Ambassadors are not outreach workers or case managers. They are only trained to refer houseless people to other resources (which are mostly full or not useful). The message they are really carrying is ‘move along’ ‘you can’t be here.’ 

What UA “ambassadors” coming here from out of state are NOT:

  • Case managers with training/intimate knowledge of locally available resources
  • Outreach workers with a history of building relationships/trust with people on the streets
  • Trash removal workers costing the City additional millions for waste removal already provided
  • Police officers/security guards with any sort of legal obligations for training/accreditation, which they have none of, and no formal training on de-escalation

DSOC or HOST would be better suited for this funding to be able to continue the work they currently do at an increased capacity, since they have a long history of relationship building with houseless community members and an intimate understanding of the available resources that UA has none of. Otherwise, you would be paying UA millions of dollars as glorified waste removers at a time when the City simply cannot afford such squandering of taxpayer money. 

Please do the correct, obvious thing this Monday and do not subject the City of Denver and its residents to the publicity/legal nightmare that is Urban Alchemy – vote NO on contracts that are costly and ineffective.

-Housekeys Action Network Denver

Additional articles for reference/further reading:

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