Seattle’s public housing is supposed to provide our city’s lowest-income people and families with affordable, comfortable places to live. From what our organization, Got Green, a community organization based in South Seattle, has seen, the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) is allowing their units to fall into a serious state of disrepair that is threatening the health and safety of tenants.
Last month, we published a report about the state of public housing in Seattle. In spring of 2024, Got Green canvassed five SHA properties located in South Seattle: NewHolly, Holly Court, Rainier Vista, Barton Place, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Apartments. We spoke to 205 tenants on their door steps, at their kitchen tables, and in their living rooms. Through these conversations, and a review of SHA inspection records, we found that public housing tenants are being forced to live in unhealthy and unsafe housing conditions and are waiting far beyond the legal limit for repairs to their homes. We also found tenants that were routinely ignored, minimized, blamed, and disrespected when they communicated their problems to the SHA.
Our report found horrendous conditions: bathrooms covered in black mold, broken refrigerators and stoves, cracked walls, sagging ceilings, warped floorboards, rat infestations, electrical issues, and plumbing problems that exposed tenants to fecal matter…