From the Jul 24 – Jul 30, 2003 issue

News

Repair Bill

Nicastro Fails to Fix Faulty Housing Guidelines

by Amy Jenniges

Two West Seattle sisters are breathing a sigh of relief this week, after a judge granted a two-week extension before the city could demolish the pair's house ["Home Wreckers," Amy Jenniges, July 17]. Under threat of lawsuit from the sisters' attorney, William Broberg, the city's Department of Design, Construction and Land Use (DCLU)--which deemed the house "unfit for human inhabitation" in April 2002--agreed to the extension. Originally, the women were supposed to vacate their home on July 21, after the city determined that the cost of fixing the house was about 80 percent of the cost of replacing it. The demolition threshold is 50 percent.

Meanwhile, low-income housing activists complain that the guidelines DCLU followed in calculating the repair costs vs. the replacement costs lowball the true value of the property, making the 50 percent threshold easier to hit. (The same questionable guidelines led to the demolition of the low-income Lillian Apartments in South Lake Union last fall.) In the West Seattle case, the city pegged the repair cost at $93,000, and the replacement cost at $117,000. But the King County Assessor says the place is worth much more: $226,000.

This problem could have been solved had housing advocates gotten their way earlier this year. The Seattle Displacement Coalition's John Fox says his group presented land use amendments to City Council Member Judy Nicastro that would have directed DCLU to create Seattle-specific estimates if the standard guidelines were not accurate. Unfortunately, Nicastro never got to it (she did not return our call). "It wouldn't have taken much," says a dismayed Fox.

amy@thestranger.com