EVERETT – As she sat on the sofa knitting a thick blanket, her smiling 8-year-old daughter beside her, Maria didn’t look like someone to be feared.
A colorfully decorated Christmas tree stood a few feet away. Family pictures were scattered about the living room. It was practically a scene out of a Norman Rockwell painting.
But more than four months ago, several residents of Maria’s south Everett neighborhood said people like her would bring crime and other problems to their quiet streets east of I-5 near 75th Street SE.
Those residents helped convince the City Council to deny $217,367 in city funding for the Everett Housing Authority to buy the 30-unit Timber Hill Apartments where Maria now lives. The residents objected to the agency’s plan to house Maria and nine other women recovering from drug or alcohol abuse in the complex.
The housing authority found the money elsewhere and bought the building on July 30 for $2.25 million.
Maria, 53, moved into her apartment in October. Two other women recovering from addictions have also moved in, and three more are expected in the next few weeks, said Jean Clancy, housing coordinator and case manager for the Tree of Life program of Catholic Community Services of Snohomish County. The nonprofit group gives the women treatment and counseling.
Maria pleaded with her new neighbors to be more open-minded.
“I think they’ve got us on a stereotype, to be honest,” she said. “They’re not giving us a chance. People change. What this program does is get us back on the right track.”
Maria did not want her last name used to protect her daughter from harassment.
Only women who have been clean and sober for a year are eligible for an apartment at Timber Hill, said Jerri Mitchell, director of housing and development for Catholic Community Services. All have children. Maria and other women moved from a more intensively supervised Tree of Life building near Everett Mall.
While at Timber Hill, program participants continue to receive treatment and counseling, and they undergo random drug testing. A positive drug test means eviction. After a year, the women will be eligible for fully independent, subsidized housing, Clancy said.
“The goal is for self-sufficiency,” she said.
Despite residents’ fears last summer, there doesn’t appear to have been a noticeable increase in crime in the area since the three women and 13 other people moved into the complex. The other 20 units in the building house people making less than 50 percent of the median income, or $35,050 for a family of three.
Housing authority executive director Bud Alkire had urged neighbors to call the agency with any complaints about the new tenants. But no one has, he said.
City spokeswoman Kate Reardon said she’s unaware of any complaints to City Hall about the apartment’s residents.
The head of the Valley View, Sylvan Crest, Larimer Ridge neighborhood association, Ernie Staudt, said he hasn’t heard of any problems either.
The Everett Police Department was unable to compile crime statistics for the area in time for this story.
Maria entered Tree of Life in 2001 after a year of using crack cocaine and several months of addiction to anti-anxiety prescription drugs.
Before her entry into the Tree of Life program, the state had taken away her daughter. Maria said she regained custody of the girl last year, after the child spent two years in foster care. The boyfriend also got treatment and now lives out of state, she said.
Maria said she constantly thinks of how drugs caused her life to spiral out of control. With the help of Tree of Life, her life is finally stable, she said.
“I’d be scared to be on drugs again,” Maria said. “I’m so grateful for this program. Without it, I would have lost everything.”
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