City officials and agency staff members faced a largely skeptical and sometimes angry crowd of Magnolia residents at an April 21 meeting about setting up housing for the homeless at Fort Lawton when the Army Reserve base closes down.And while a four-hour workshop the following Saturday, April 26, was meant to address goals and specifics about the project, there were still some who obviously objected to the very idea of having homeless housing in Magnolia.Some of the questions and comments have been heard before. One woman at the Monday meeting, for example, wanted to know if community members even have a say about having the formerly homeless move into an area surrounded by expensive housing.They don't, noted Adrienne Quinn, deputy director of the city's Office of Housing. Longstanding federal policy mandates that housing for the homeless has to be included in redeveloping former military property, she explained.The stance is reiterated in the city's Neighborhood Notification and Community Relations Guidelines Policy, which states: "It is the policy of the City of Seattle that (Office of Housing) funding of affordable housing not be refused on the basis of concerns expressed by neighbors. ..."The Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) is the lead agency that will oversee the homeless housing on fort property in a partnership with the Archdiocesan Housing Authority (AHA) and the YWCA, Quinn said.The United Indians of All Tribes Foundation will team up with the YWCA and will be responsible for setting up housing for formerly homeless American Indian elders. There will also be market-rate housing included in the mix, she added. The Department of Defense will receive the proceeds from the sales of the market-rate housing. The project is part of the city's ambitious 10-year plan to end homelessness, said Bill Block from the Committee to End Homelessness in King County. "And all neighborhoods are really being asked to pitch in."Block is familiar with the kinds of concerns many Magnolians have. Neighborhood residents become "absolutely unglued" when a homeless project is first set up in their area, he said. But by the time another homeless project is established in the same area - as happens sometimes - the neighborhood fears have been allayed, according to Block.The AHA maintains 400 units of housing in Seattle for formerly homeless people, and the residents are "wrapped in social services," said Bill Hallerman from the Catholic organization.Hallerman had a poster board with photos of the Westlake Hotel and pointed to the success of that downtown homeless-housing project for men. Putting the chronically homeless in housing and providing services helps stabilize them and gives them a sense of community, he said. "At the Westlake, most of them don't even lock their doors."Another woman at the Monday meeting who was clearly steamed wasn't buying Hallerman's argument. "You say it's going to get them stable. What happens if it doesn't?" she asked. "What happens when someone messes up? What about kids (in the neighborhood)?""We have house rules folks have to follow," said Hallerman, who added that a team of eight or nine people provide services to the 59 men living at the Westlake Hotel. The AHA also does background checks on its residents, he said.It won't be just single men living at Fort Lawton; there will also be families with children, noted Sue Sherbrooke from the YWCA. "On any given year we served around 1,900 homeless families," she said.In many cases, the family includes a single mother who has a couple of kids and doesn't make enough money to pay rent in high-priced Seattle, Sherbrooke said. "The other leading cause of homelessness (for women) is domestic violence."The YWCA's clients go through an in-depth intake process, there is one case manager for every 10 residents and the goal is to integrate affordable housing into the surrounding communities, Sherbrooke said. "It's been a very successful model."Hallerman from the AHA conceded that some of the clients he deals with suffer from serious mental health problems. "We don't accept them in all our buildings," he said.And it won't be an issue at Fort Lawton, according to Quinn. Mental illness does not have to be a scary thing, she said. "(But) it doesn't mean we're bringing raving psychotics to Fort Lawton."A man at the meeting who said he didn't want to be a NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) person added that he was concerned about the process. "You people don't know our community the way we do," he said. "I don't feel good about the process, about where were going."The workshopDeputy Mayor Tim Ceis told a room full of people at the start of the Saturday workshop that Mayor Greg Nickels recognizes housing the formerly homeless in Magnolia is an important issue for the community, and he said the city is very committed to working with Magnolians to make the project a success. The city wants to ensure that the neighborhood gets the very best design possible for the housing, and it's also important that the city decided to become the Local Reuse Authority because the Army alone could have made the decisions, Ceis added."There will be impacts we will have to address," he went on to say, adding that it's fortunate that the SHA is involved in the project. That's because the agency has experience making sure housing projects fit into the communities where they are located, according to Ceis. He mentioned Rainier Vista in South Seattle and the High Point project in West Seattle as examples.The workshop last weekend was the second of four such meetings and the goal of the first one was to draw up a list of priorities "so we can get a sense of what's important to the community," said Brian Sullivan from SHA. Still, he stressed that it was important to realize it will be a long process before plans are finalized.Priorities were listed because it's easy for just few people to dominate the discussion, Quinn from the Office of Housing said. Those at the first workshop were asked to choose their top three priorities by placing sticky dots next to a list, red for those living near Fort Lawton and green for those who live elsewhere."Some of you thought we would pull the dots off when you left," she said. That didn't happen, of course, and the results were included in a handout at the second workshop. Under a housing program heading, the top vote-getter was developing as little homeless housing as possible at Fort Lawton.Under the community impact, the main concern was maintaining property values in the area. Many neighborhood residents at previous meetings said they were afraid the value of their homes would plummet if homeless housing was set up at Fort Lawton.Less controversial was the top vote-getter under the heading of natural environment and open space. That calls for protecting wildlife and great blue heron habitat under rules that limit construction to times of year when the skittish birds aren't nesting.Other uses connected to the homeless housing include a lack of neighborhood retail outlets in the immediate area and a lack of capacity in neighborhood schools, according to some at the meeting. "We hear that a lot," Quinn said of the latter concern. But she also stressed that the housing development won't be completed for several years.The city has also hired EDAW, a technical consultant firm to help in planning for the housing. EDAW has worked on 29 of the 97 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Act since 1988, said Brian Scott from the company. "We've just begun to map some of the issues on this site," he said.Transportation to and from Fort Lawton was a subject that came up at the workshop, as well. Currently there is an entrance to the base off of 36th Avenue West, and Texas Way to the west of 36th is also an entrance. Eden Mack thought the number of roads to the base should be minimized. "We don't want to see the neighborhood become a throughfare," added her husband, Kevin Reynolds. Jonathan Tingstad thought only Texas Way should be used. "To make 36th an entrance, I think you have crossed the line," he said. Sullivan from SHA assured the crowd that traffic circulation would be thoroughly studied before any decisions are made.The number of units of homeless housing has yet to be determined, but a minimum number will be 66, according to Linda Cannon, Deputy Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Relations. That's based on an ordinance passed by the Seattle City Council when plans came up to convert the 66 units of Capehart Navy housing into meadowland in the middle of Discovery Park.There was pressure to preserve the Capehart housing for low-income residents, but the City Council said no with the proviso that 66 units of low-income housing be included in the Fort Lawton Plan, Cannon said. Still, one man at the workshop who said he was trying to remain open-minded said he couldn't see how homeless housing can fit into the character of the neighborhood.Safety for children, adults and pedestrians was also a worry for some at the workshop. Sullivan tried to reassure them. "Safety has been a top priority on every project I've ever worked on," he said.Three more workshops are planned, and a draft plan will be ready for the mayor's office at the end of July. The plan will end up in the City Council's court by September, Canon said, and will then be submitted to the federal government by next October.[[In-content Ad]]
