EVERETT — The Housing Authority of Snohomish County Tuesday abandoned its effort to take over a motel in south Everett by eminent domain.
The housing authority this week will withdraw a petition it filed Jan. 2 in Snohomish County Superior Court seeking to force a sale of the Everett Inn, said Bob Davis, the housing authority’s executive director. The agency had planned to use the motel for housing and social services for homeless families.
"All of the reaction we’re getting is that people are very uncomfortable with the idea of using eminent domain to acquire housing," Davis said.
The housing authority will almost surely not resort to eminent domain again in the foreseeable future, he said. "I cannot conceive of a situation in which the housing authority would exercise that power," he said.
After The Herald on Jan. 12 reported on the housing authority’s action against motel owners Jong Gil and Hyun Sook Kim, dozens of people criticized the housing agency on radio talk programs, on the Herald’s Internet discussion forum and in telephone calls to the housing authority.
In addition, Korean community leaders on Jan. 15 urged the housing authority to drop its action against the Kims, who emigrated from South Korea 22 years ago.
The housing authority offered the Kims $1.6 million for their motel, which is what a private appraiser hired by the housing authority estimated as its worth. However, the county Assessor’s Office valued the property at more than $2.4 million in 2002.
Jong Gil Kim said he and his wife are relieved that the action has been dropped.
"We looked into hiring a lawyer to defend us and found out it would have cost $300 an hour," he said. "Now we don’t have to do that."
But he added that the housing authority shouldn’t have taken the eminent-domain action in the first place.
"They should have first studied whether this is something the public wanted," Kim said. "They thought they could do it no matter what."
Sunny Kim (no relation to Jong Gil Kim), president of the Korean Chamber of Commerce of Washington State, agreed.
"I’m very happy our strong message that this is not what the public wanted got through to them," she said.
Davis said he talked with all six members of the housing authority’s board on Tuesday, and they agreed with his proposal to withdraw the eminent-domain action.
Board member Chancey Boyle said she and others on the board initially believed that eminent domain was the best way to serve the public interest.
"We all felt we were doing a good thing by providing emergency housing," she said. "But we’re there to serve the community," and many people opposed the eminent-domain action.
Boyle said another factor in the housing authority’s decision was the fear by some Korean community leaders that the agency was trying to take advantage of the Kims because they are immigrants who might not know how to navigate the U.S. legal system.
"That is not the kind of battle we wanted to get into, being accused of discrimination against a minority," she said.
Boyle said the Kims’ ethnicity had nothing to do with the eminent-domain action.
The housing authority will now begin looking at other motels in the county that it could use to assist homeless families, Davis said.
"When you have more than 300 families in the county who are being served, and you’re turning 4,000 families away, you understand that there is a compelling need for us to keep looking for a site for a facility like this," Davis said. "The need is not going to go away, and we need to do something to address it."
The housing authority previously looked at several other motels but settled on the Everett Inn because it was in an "ideal location" near public transportation, day care centers, schools, Head Start programs, shopping and the housing authority’s own offices, said Ann Schroeder Osterberg, the agency’s director of capital services.
The Everett Inn would have housed about 30 families, some of them in emergency housing for several weeks and others in subsidized apartments for a longer term as they transitioned toward independent living. The YWCA would have managed the building.
Kim last year offered to sell the housing authority the motel for $2.4 million, but the housing authority hired a Seattle appraisal firm that valued the motel at $1.6 million. When Kim would not lower his asking price, the housing authority went to court.
Kim said he would still be willing to sell the motel for $2.4 million. But Davis said state law prohibits the housing authority from purchasing property for more than the appraised value — unless the higher price is reached in a court action such as eminent domain.
"That’s to protect the public purse," Davis said. "People don’t want us paying more for property than it’s worth, and the only way to be sure of that is by using the appraised value."
Reporter David Olson:
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