EVERETT – Tracy Block had no idea that a small apartment building on her cul-de-sac southeast of Paine Field was about to become government-subsidized housing.
The Everett Housing Authority is buying the nondescript eight-unit complex in a working-class neighborhood on E. Gibson Road, just south of Everett for $925,000.
The move reflects the agency’s long-range plan to give poor families more choices about where to live by spreading public housing beyond the densely populated projects of north Everett.
“The concentration of any one group of people, whether by income, nationality or race, just doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Bud Alkire, executive director of the Housing Authority.
“We don’t think it’s particularly good from a public policy point of view for the overall Everett community.”
The Housing Authority already owns a handful of small apartments around the city.
Still, more than 600 of its 1,000 apartments are within a few blocks of each other in Everett’s Delta Neighborhood, where poverty is high.
That ratio is expected to drop to less than four in 10 within the next seven years.
The Housing Authority also distributes federal vouchers for subsidized rent in another 2,363 privately owned apartments and houses.
In March 2005, the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners approved a 10-year plan to tear down the Baker Heights Apartments, the city’s largest and oldest public housing development, and to replace the dilapidated buildings with new private homes.
Residents living in the 250 WWII-era apartments would be relocated to other apartments throughout the city.
Replacing public housing with new private homes is expected to help create a new and positive image for north Everett.
But scattering public housing around the city also means that people such as Block, who live miles from the projects, could see changes in their neighborhoods.
Housing Authority officials say there’s nothing to be alarmed about, however.
“The Housing Authority manages properties so well, after the purchase is over, it’s common for neighbors not to realize who the new owner is,” said David Dorsey, one of six appointed Housing Authority commissioners.
Everett Police Lt. Pete Hegge said police are called to quell problems at Baker Heights and other subsidized housing complexes more often than at apartments not managed by the authority.
While many residents work hard and are well-behaved, others lack basic life skills, he said.
“The people have already identified themselves as not being able to handle all of their affairs on their own,” he said.
Still, he said Everett Housing Authority is good at evicting problem tenants and working with police.
“You can’t paint them all with the same brush,” he said of government housing. “And when tenants are well-screened and properties managed, you can’t tell.”
Block, 33, said she has mixed feelings about living near public housing.
In the 11-years she has lived in a modest duplex owned by her in-laws, the mother of three has seen an influx of drugs, violence and absentee landlords in the surrounding area. She said she hopes public housing won’t contribute any more to the area’s decline.
“When we moved in, it was a really nice neighborhood, but it’s gone downhill in recent years,” she said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
