Project Connect gets insured

Annual event for homeless and low- income people will continue

By Hillary Borrud / The Bulletin

An event to help homeless people and others who are struggling appears to be back on track to take place in September, after the loss of its insurance coverage threatened to cancel the event.

Organizers thought they might have to cancel Project Connect if they could not obtain insurance, and said they were trying to find a solution by today.

The one-day Project Connect event will obtain insurance one of two ways, either on its own or through Deschutes County, event organizers and county staff said Wednesday. They found a company willing to insure the event, although they still have to sort out whether the company will allow the event organizer to purchase the insurance directly, or whether the company will require Deschutes County to take out the special-event insurance.

The Partnership to End Poverty, which organizes Project Connect, plans to pay for the insurance either way, said Scott Cooper, director of policy for the Partnership to End Poverty.

Philadelphia Insurance Companies quoted the county $4,199 to provide general liability insurance for the event, according to a county document and Deputy County Administrator Erik Kropp.

Cooper said his organization appreciates the county's help in finding an insurance policy.

“We are here to say thank you to Erik, thank you to the county, to say one of two paths (to get insurance) is going to happen,” Cooper said.

Cooper said two weeks ago that a more complete description of Project Connect might have raised questions for the event's former insurers, who declined to cover it again this year.

“We made sure when we sent the application this year, we gave them a more detailed description of the event,” Cooper said. “That probably raised some red flags, too.”

Brigitt Whitescarzer, program manager for the special-event liability division of Gales Creek Insurance Services, which formerly provided special-event insurance for Project Connect, said Cooper's assessment was correct. Project Connect's general liability insurer, Darwin, also declined to cover the event.

Gales Creek Insurance Services employees were under the impression that Project Connect was simply connecting people to services, and they did not realize medical workers at the event were actually treating people, Whitescarzer said. When the underwriter of the insurance policy learned about the actual services provided, the underwriter was no longer willing to cover the event.

Another major liability is child care provided at Project Connect, Whitescarzer said, and she did not know of any special-event insurance providers that cover child care services. Project Connect was an odd situation, she added, because Gales Creek only declines insurance a couple dozen times a year.

Project Connect is scheduled for Sept. 18 at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center.

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