Next Monday, August 29, at 6:00 P.M. at 824 12th Avenue (Seattle U. A. and A. Bldg.) a public meeting will be held to discuss the plans of Catholic Community Services for a neighborhood site.
At the meeting Catholic Community Services representatives will present their plans for renovating the building and providing housing and services at the SE corner of E. Spring and 13th Avenue (formerly a day care center). The plan is to create eighteen units of housing for homeless persons.
From a CCS letter describing the proposed project:
“We are working in partnership with the Veterans Administration to provide 18 units of housing for homeless veterans. … Veterans will be referred by the Veterans Administration and will receive coordinated case management services through both organizations.”
Among the criteria for eligibility for housing in the project, CCS lists the following:
“desire to lead a clean and sober lifestyle, willing to undergo a criminal background check, desire to make meaningful life changes leading to independent living.” CCS says that “case management services will be provided onsite.”
The major portion of the funds required to turn the former day care center into housing for eighteen is to be provided by the federal government. CCS is in the process of raising the remaining money. According to the CCS Web site, the Veterans Administration awarded CCS $1.1 million for the project. http://tinyurl.com/44xu7pt
As the Web site describes,
“the program will serve homeless Veterans who have unstable social networks, are unemployed or underemployed, may suffer from mental illness and/or substance abuse. These men will have little or no resources to fall back on and will be in dire need of help and support to get back on their feet. Veterans may have acquired job skills while in the military, but many of those skills are not transferable to the jobs available in their community.
The program is designed to support each Veteran as they progress at their own pace. Resident progress will be closely monitored through ongoing assessments of individual goals. Monitored outcomes will include; improved residential stability, greater self-determination and increased income and/or job skills. These Veterans will be encouraged to participate in educational and vocational programs. Residents will be required to maintain sobriety while engaged in case management services designed to help them obtain and maintain permanent housing. Upon successful completion of the program, at least 6 months of aftercare case management and support will be provided to the independently housed Veteran ”
CCS anticipates starting construction in spring 2012 and the beginning of service in early 2013.. The contact person at CCS is Dan Wise, [email protected] Telephone: 206.324.5401.
If I understand correctly, these targeted homeless people are Veterans that are working with the VA, and are getting the help they need in addressing various issues related to their having become homeless in the first place. As long as this necessary assistance is provided, and as long as there are remedies in place if laws are broken ( once they move into this new facility ), I am all for seeing it move into out neighborhood.
What would turn me against this planned new housing facility, would be if the services many of these currently homeless Veterans need, were inadequate, or ineffective to the resident’s needs.
All these great needed programs need to be located north of the ship canal where there are many commerical areas and other amenities for their use and can provide employment. But no, there is an all out effort to take any available spce for amenities the neighborhood needs and fill it with social service agencies. We are a containament zone for both crime and what ever social service ageny can dump here.
How about a small grocery, a dry cleaner or something we all need developed there. Welcome to the ghetto!
Yea, I really like the idea, we need to support veterans who have been overlooked for so many years. I love the idea of offering appropriate housing, which this program will do. Our community clearly needs to step forward and take responsibility for our neighbors and friends.
But Not In My Back Yard! Amiright? Guys? Right? Great program, just put it somewhere far from us. Not In My Back Yard!
That Right Neil, put in an aera that has commercial areas where they can find employment, near neighborhood amenities that can help them in many ways. We do not have that down here because of the social service agencies attempt ghettoize us. It is not a NIMBY attitude but an AMBY, Always In My Back Yard.
blah blah blah containment zone blah blah north of the ship canal blah blah blah dumping ground blah blah AMBY not NIMBY blah blah.
All of your posts read the same, eyes.
To Blah, Blah, Blah. Perhaps “Eyes” posts read the same, because it IS more of the same. It does seem like businesses and developers continue to have problems getting their projects funded in the CD, but money is found for organizations to open yet another “treatment” facility. Do we really need more people (probably male) with mental and or substance issues in this neighborhood? What is wrong with finding other communities to support these programs? What is wrong with wanting your neighborhood to contain diversity and sustainability in it’s commercial and retail spaces and in asking for consideration of a neighborhood’s impact? We are littered with non-tax paying churches and social services. A neighborhood can not be self-sustaining without a healthy residential and business tax base.
It seems like every time I open this blog, there’s another notice of a public meeting to announce yet another social program wants to open its doors in the CD. It would be one thing if all these programs even sought to serve the needs of the deserving residents already there, but their proposals even come with their own clients to serve!
I agree with most of the previous posters who note the need for a stable base of tax-paying businesses who serve the needs (like groceries, or JOBS) of the citizens already here. Did they even look for space north of the ship canal?
Bill, When you have an article to post of this length, your readers would be ever so grateful if you would break it up into paragraphs, preferably with some white space inserted.
See how much easier it to read when you give the eyes a break?
Cyclops, perhaps if you opened both your eyes you would see the asinine shallow reply you…. Ohh thats rght you do not have both eyes do you.
There are reasons enough to think the CD is up and coming: witness the Wonder Bread apartments, Beehive Bakery and humming development along 12th Ave. But strong negatives persist that curb the area’s potential to attract and grow businesses much beyond chains like AutoZone.
The CD *is* extraordinarily and inequitably overburdened by social-service players and partners. They not only constrain the CD’s retail tax base but also make the available residential properties far less attractive to people with disposable income:
–low-income apartments like the ones proposed above and the senior housing going in across from Washington Middle School;
–facilities like the DESC Crisis Center and 22nd Ave. Halfway House, the Autonomia house;
–entrenched agencies like CADA and Casa Latina that have the city’s ear and pocket in a way that the neighborhood councils seem not to even aspire to.
That, compounded by drug dealing and prostitution that flourishes with a neutered police force, make improvement a steep uphill slog. Maybe it’s easier to see it differently if you’ve lived here 30 years and can recall when danger lurked on more corners. I’ve been here five years, and it seems like history is working hard against the CD’s progress.
I couldn’t agree more. The paragraph-less post gives me a headache. For reasons that are probably not a mystery to anyone but me, my draft post with seven or eight paragraphs ends up as one endless one.
Couldn’t agree more with this. I think we have more than enough rehab, homeless, and other social service centers here in the CD. Not sure why we are always the first target for things like this.
I’d much rather have something move in that the entire community can benefit from, something that actually adds value to the community rather than decreases it.
You would think they would be looking to build is less up and coming areas. The land value here isn’t exactly cheap anymore. I can think of much cheap areas to build.
Bottom line is that we have enough already. We’ve taken more than our fair share of these type of places. It’s time to find somewhere else to build. There are tons of other communities that don’t have a single social service center anywhere near them. Build it in one of those instead.
There are a number of old Chinese women in the neighborhood that feed rats – actually feed rats. The rats scurry around in broad daylight like pigeons, but worse. Rats can now be seen running wild through all of our alleys and most likely in poorly constructed homes or unkempt homes. It is just gross.
Similary, all these social service agencies actually encourage people to become and remain dependant. What our veterans need is a robust economy where people of various talents and ability are needed. They need to be needed. Not fed like rats or pigeons on the corner. I’ll give that some very small percentage of the community could benifit from very temporary help, as say the Red Cross might provide disaster victims. They offer help with a definitive plan and timeline for getting back on your own. (Much as I am opposed to DESC, they seem to share this concept – so goody).
Our veterans are not poor helpless hopeless charity cases that need to be provided with endless social services. It is disgraceful to think thay way. Open a cheap taco stand instead so people and work and get a cheap bite to eat. No more propagating a society of dependents.
Only five years? This assult by Social Service agencies has been going on for decades! There are endless proposed projects tha have risen and residents spend endless hours trying, and in most cases, sucessfully stoping them, only to find them rearing their head later. The Casey Foundation on 23rd was a Safeway food store, but the property was never replaced with a commercial business. The people who are fighting the DESC Jail facility have the right idea, they are SUEING the city. A class action law suit is all they recognize and fear short of an expose of corruption.
Bill, are you posting to this site using Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, or something else? I’ve been told the site works best on Firefox so that’s what I use when I’m writing on it. You can go in and edit the text box after a piece has posted, and add spaces between paragraphs. But if you’re using IE that might be part of the problem. Just a suggestion.
Yes, try using a different browser or email the text with breaks to [email protected] and I’ll fix it up. Sometimes our software is a little buggy.
I’ve posted numerous times using IE with no paragraphing problem.
Are you sure about that (the Casey Foundation building on 23rd) If I recall correctly there were some residential houses, at least one converted to businesses (a sketchy place claiming to be a pawn shop/gold exchange/convenience store?) and a very old building housing Ms. Helens (or was she in the next one over…. the one that is still a vacant lot) in the spot where the Casey Foundation building is now.
Safeway used to be right where Safeway is now….. it was a Safeway, then a bowling alley, then Planned Parenthood, now it is back to a Safeway. The current Planned Parenthood building stands on a site that if I am remembering correctly was occupied by a pest control company…. It was a big fenced in lot populated by a lot of drums of nasty chemicals…. I prefer the current arrangement….
As far as the vets go – I do think it would make more sense to locate a facility for them on Beacon Hill- something with better access to the VA Hospital where they need to go for treatment. I used to work there – it is not particularly easy to get to the place from this area using public transportation…. Maybe a little bit better now with the light rail, but it would still probably take at least 3 transfers to do it…. From experience I can say if you do not make it simple for a lot of those guys to do things, they just don’t do them….
@Carolyn, I believe some of the “beta” options that make it easier to customize your post with images and links work better in something other than IE…or at least that’s what I remember reading when I first started posting to the site. It may not be causing you problems, but you may not be getting all the bells and whistles.
@Bill, copied and pasted text from Word usually does lose its formatting. You may need to go in and manually add the spaces between paragraphs.
Interesting article over at Publicola that provides some interesting facts.
http://publicola.com/2011/09/02/police-memo-54-people-respon
“BELLTOWN CRIMINAL REVIEW
CRIMINAL HISTORY OF 54 FREQUENT CONTACTS IN BELLTOWN
TOTAL ARRESTS/CRIMINAL REPORTED CONTACTS: 2704
AVERAGE: 50.07 PER PERSON
TOTAL CONVICTIONS: 877
FELONY: 266
GROSS MISDEMEANOR: 138
MISDEMEANORS: 188
UNCLASSIFIED: 285
AVERAGE OF 16.24 CONVICTIONS PER PERSON
FELONIES INCLUDED: MURDER, RAPE, ROBBERY, ASSAULT, BURGLARY, CHILD MOLESTATION, VUCSA, FORGERY, THEFT
SEVERAL HAVE MULTI STATE ARRESTS AND CONVICTION NOT TOTALED IN THIS COUNT.THE MAJORITY ON THIS LIST LIVE IN ASSISTED LIVING, SHELTERS OR JAIL ALTERNATIVE HOUSING IN THE BELLTOWN NEIGHBORHOOD.”