A massive 60-unit homeless facility proposed by Downtown Emergency Services Center (DESC) will likely overwhelm Southeast Seattle's fragile Hillman and Columbia City neighborhoods with dubious benefit to the homeless population it is supposed to serve.
However, for the pro-DESC group "Rainier HOME," anything less than complete project endorsement indicates antipathy towards the homeless. In a June 9 Seattle Channel segment, DESC director Bill Hobson similarly decried the "demonization" of the homeless instead of answering troubling questions about the project's size and cost. DESC won't even allow the Southeast Seattle Crime Prevention Council to participate in a proposed good neighbor agreement!
We care deeply about both the city's homeless and our neighborhood, and reject DESC's and Rainier HOME's divisive attack-the-messenger tactics as we search for a more thoughtful middle ground.
Because our neighborhood and the large homeless population suddenly to be inserted into our midst will have to live for decades to come with mistakes made now, the city must pause and provide transparent decision-making. There are at least three reasons why DESC's Rainier Avenue facility should not be rushed to final approval.
1) Subsidized housing consumes limited taxpayer resources and thus requires rational decision-making, not simplistic emotional appeals.
As stated in the application DESC filed with Seattle's Housing Office, this project will serve 60 "chronically homeless, single adults with disabilities including mental illness, chemical dependency, and other conditions." This population obviously requires special services if we are to succeed in breaking their cycles of poverty, mental illness, alcoholism/drug dependency and homelessness. Sound public policy has evolved to direct the investment of limited public taxpayer resources in the battle against homelessness.
DESC is part of a growing nonprofit-not philanthropic-industry, spawned by taxpayer-funded subsidies and favorable public tax policy. DESC projects are entitled to no more deference from city decision-makers than any other private developer seeking approval for non-subsidized housing projects. Indeed, precisely because limited taxpayer resources will be consumed by DESC, citizens who care about the homeless will be alarmed about the questionable return we are likely to receive on this $15 million project.
2) Under Washington State Housing Finance Commission (WSHFC) guidelines, the proposed 60-unit facility is more than twice the ideal size.
WSHFC implements IRS guidelines for distribution of limited tax credits available to subsidize Washington homeless facilities: see WAC 262-01-130(5). Under a competitive scoring system for determining a proposed facility's eligibility for these transferable tax credits, facilities with 25 or fewer units receive the most points (10); facilities with between 26 and 50 units are awarded 5 points; and projects with 51 or more units-like that proposed for Rainier Avenue-receive zero points. These guidelines are consistent with a recent study of Section 8 housing, in which buildings with fewer units was one of five environmental factors found to increase residential stability (Harkness, J.; Newman, S.; and Salkever, D. 2004).
DESC is not only bucking conventional wisdom with its mega-project, it may be saddling taxpayers with an even greater financial burden down the road. Curiously, when this project was initially proposed at 80 units, DESC claimed the 26-50-unit tax credit treatment. Even after DESC lowered the size to 60 units, it wrongly continues to claim the middle-level treatment. Even five fewer points may cost DESC millions of dollars in competitive WSHFC tax credits. Who will make up the difference?
3) Nearly a quarter-million dollars of required soils remediation may make this site financially infeasible.
DESC's application also reveals that it paid $185,000 more than the property's fair market value. An engineering firm reports that the site's unstable fill soils will require $235,000 in remediation measures. DESC nonetheless proceeded to close on the sale, claiming that it would offset the excess purchase price internally. Is DESC's decision to close an improvident transaction driving the size and scope of the project beyond HUD's ideal limits?
More broadly, to truly end homelessness throughout King County within 10 years will require participation from all parts of the city and the county. It might be easier to warehouse larger groups of the homeless in mega-facilities rather than the preferred smaller, healthier clusters advocated in recent research. We must insist, however, that Mayor Nickels not bow to pressure from downtown businesses and simply try to hide this pervasive social problem in our fragile neighborhood.
Dowidar, Haynes, Holmes, Quarnstrom, Rodriguez, Sheeran and Veldwyk may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.[[In-content Ad]]
