Published December 2003

Study to determine future of low-income housing community

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

A feasibility study is under way by the Everett Housing Authority to determine the future of the Baker Heights housing community in north Everett, a low-income residential development built in 1942.

The 247 units in Baker Heights’ multi-family apartment buildings were extensively remodeled and upgraded in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Now it’s time for another look at the community, said Everett Housing Authority Executive Director Bud Alkire.

“We upgraded them a couple of decades ago. Now the question is do we do it again or look at something else,” Alkire said. “We have two primary options, to continue the past process of normal maintenance and periodic upgrading or to take a more dramatic approach that would demolish all of the units, or a significant portion of them.”

If the aging structures were demolished, he said, they would be replaced by a mix of new structures, probably with new street patterns as well.

“These buildings are not only old but they were built to extremely modest standards at the time and weren’t really designed to last this long,” Alkire said.

“They certainly have some limitations. For instance, even the three-bedroom homes have no eating spaces large enough for a table for the whole family. A one-bedroom unit may have six or seven in a household, and there’s little or no storage space, as well as a shortage of parking space for vehicles,” he said.

Alkire hopes to have much of the study completed by the end of the year, including a variety of demographic and community information, a survey of residents’ views, and inspections of the foundations, roofs and apartment interiors. Then a list of alternatives can be compiled.

“There is no urgency. It’s not like something needs to happen in the next couple years, but we want to begin preparing for the future,” he said.

Even if the Housing Authority decided to demolish the units, it wouldn’t mean maintenance would stop in the meantime, he said.

“But we do have to plan, to have goals, so we know what we’re going to do for low-income families,” he said.

If the study determines the need for demolition and redevelopment, it could mean the new community would be composed of a mix of low-income and moderate-income neighborhoods, including condos as well as apartments.

“We’re seeing a trend in the country to mixed-income developments, but overall, we’re not interested in anything that reduces the total number of low-income housing units in the city,”Alkire said. “If the mix changed on this site we would develop more low-income housing elsewhere.”

As part of the feasibility study, the Housing Authority has included the services of Rider Hunt Levett & Bailey of Seattle to estimate the remodeling or replacement cost (see related story).

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