I’m writing to comment on recent commentaries by Michael Neeley and Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson regarding the low-barrier housing plan that is planned for the Pinehurst-Beverly Park Neighborhood.
I’m a long-time resident of the Pinehurst-Beverly Park Neighborhood and have dealt with the homeless street people for years. The mayor and the City Council members never asked the residents of the neighborhood for their input on the proposed facility. We found out by reading it in the Everett Herald!
When the mayor came to the neighborhood meeting on May 24 he told us this was going to happen. We told him that our historic single-family community did not believe this was the best place. We asked why this facility was being placed in a neighborhood with families with small children and longtime residence. These people are going to continue to use alcohol and drugs while walking our streets and living in this facility where people’s children play.
I feel this is not the place for this kind of facility. The city has land between 25th and 26th Street on W. Marine View Drive that is zoned for multi-family. It is close to bus routes and downtown services.
The Pinehurst-Beverly Park Neighborhood already has Housing Hope, Bridgeway Ministries and Sunrise Services and is doing more than their fair share to support the homeless.
I have had contact with these homeless people for years and know most of these people do not want help. They only want to be left alone to continue to abuse alcohol and drugs. Moving them from north Everett to our neighborhood, which already supports the above services, is not going to help these people, and places more burden on the the Pinehurst-Beverly Park community. All this would do is to move the problem and make another.
If the mayor and the City Council feel this is a solution to the homelessness in Everett and not a burden to our neighborhood, why not put the first one in their own neighborhoods? I find it interesting that six of the seven council members all live north of 41st Street; not one lives in our neighborhood.
What happens when the developer can’t continue to operate the facility on city land? Who is left holding the bills? The citizens of Everett and the Pinehurst Beverly Park neighborhood, that’s who. For these reasons my neighbors and I oppose this low-barrier housing plan and don’t want this facility in our neighborhood.
Oden Olson lives in Everett.
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