The Richard Hugo House—a nonprofit that provides classes, lectures, a reading series, and performance venues for local writers—announced today that it will terminate one of its successful residency programs, which housed local writers at the Belltown cottages, in September. The Hugo House says their decision was prompted by liability, safety, and security concerns written into their contract that the city has been unwilling to address.
“We reviewed our agreement with the city and realized we were financially responsible for improvements that we, as a nonprofit, can’t possibly afford,” explains Sue Joerger, executive director of Hugo House, citing improvements such as lead-paint abatement on the huts, which is scheduled for the fall, and a collapsing garage beneath one of the cottages.
“We’re also not comfortable holding month-to-month lease agreements with our artists that can be terminated by the city at any time,” she added. “We’re in an arrangement where we hold a lot of responsibility and no real authority, and for that reason, we must end the program.”
Jeorger says she’s approached Seattle Parks and Recreation to address Hugo House’s concerns. The parks department manages the Belltown P-patch and the huts, which are city property. A spokesman couldn’t be reached for comment on the future of the huts, as today is a furlough day for parks staff.
Hugo House has managed the low-rent cannery cottages since 2003, when the nonprofit was invited by the city and Historic Seattle to start a residency program. Since then, writers have occupied two of the cottages located in the Belltown P-Patch for one or two year terms, where they write, teach, and meet with the public for one-on-one writing advice and personal critiques.
Full disclosure: I’m a current Hugo House writer in residence and I’ve lived in the huts for almost two years. The residency is an amazing opportunity for writers and offers a huge security boost to the garden, which attracts drug users, homeless individuals, and the odd masturbator. And at a time when 4Culture is struggling and the city’s Arts and Cultural Affairs is facing up to a 14.5 percent budget cut, this was one program that actively supports artists that didn’t need to go.
“I’d love to continue putting artists in the huts,” says Joerger, “but right now, as our agreement stands, we can’t afford the risk. It’s just not feasible for us.”
I would like to repeat that the reason no comment can be obtained is that the PARKS DEPT is having a furlong day, which means none of the Parks and Rec staff is being paid today. 2.5 million dollars in the hole.
Writers may have to go back to living in attics or other housing since the people who work for P&R are not getting paid…
public subsidizing of the arts needs to stop until we are flush enough to afford it again.
Art will go on happening, I am sure. Just not in subsidized housing, Cienna. You will have to find another place to live and write. YOu could do so in a few of the community centers except that the budget cuts in P&R are going to close them too.
Seattle cant afford to house artists anymore.
That sucks majorly.
@1, your statement that “Seattle can’t afford to house artists anymore” is both bleak and wrongheaded.
The huts were empty before artists were brought in. Artists pay rent and utilities, so the city isn’t losing money on them (that I’m aware of). The city will lose money on them if they remain vacant, because they will be broken into and damaged.
My tenure as a writer-in-resident ends in September– this isn’t about me finding a new place to live and write. I’m not affected by this. Many writers who were planning on applying for it are. I get questions and emails about the residency on a fairly regular basis. To them, this is news. Bad news.
@3 Well said – no matter how you slice it, this is a lost opportunity for multiple parties. The program was a win-win for both writers and the Park Service despite the difficulties – it seemed like the kind of success story the city would have wanted to capitalize and expand on.
When you agreed to be a “writer in residence,” did they confiscate your spell-checker?
@5, my spell check doesn’t recognize masturbators. It’s fixed. Thanks.
That would be furlough. Not furlong. Guess we need more writers-in-residence-with-spell-check-or-pick-up-a-dictionary.
@4, I agree, but the article leaves a lot of questions unanswered. I don’t blame Hugo House for having concerns, but they were, apparently, not so severe that Hugo House wasn’t willing to do this a couple years ago. I’d like to know (a) what the specific changes Hugo House requested were, (b) whether those requests would cost the city funds in addition to whatever is already being spent.
Finally, as a matter of basic economics, the city “loses”, at a minimum, the opportunity cost. If Hugo House doesn’t use the houses, the city can presumably do something with them that doesn’t leave them empty, and may even get rent out of the deal. I’d prefer that the HH program go forward.
What terrible, terrible news. Was there much internal debate among Hugo House staff members regarding the program’s closure? I mean, the month-to-month lease, the sketchy garage: these were “problems” back in 2006, 2007 — but they weren’t deal-breakers in any way. Why now? The program did so much good: for the writers, for the P-Patch, for the community. I can’t quite believe it’s being killed.
RIP, 2512 Elliott Avenue. You were a weird and beautiful place.