The CEO of Bellwether Housing says residents of the First Hill 17-story apartment building who had to get through a week without elevators after damage to the Madison building’s system were getting back to normal life last week.
Susan Boyd says one elevator was back in service by last Monday and repairs were planned to be completed headed into the Memorial Day weekend on the other elevators. “It’s not back to usual by any stretch, but there is much relief felt by all,” Boyd said of the work.
CHS reported here on the week without elevator service in the low-income high-rise after a Seattle Fire response left a flooded basement and left the building’s elevator system inoperable.
The joint project from Plymouth Housing and Bellwether Housing opened last spring. Plymouth operates Blake House on floors two through five with a total of 112 studio apartments focused on serving seniors and veterans who have experienced chronic homelessness while Bellwether operates The Rise on Madison on floors six through 17 with “250 homes affordable to families making 60% or less of area median income.”
During the outage, Bellwether said it moved residents who couldn’t make the climb to temporary hotel housing while also providing staff to handle things like packages and pets. The American Red Cross and the Office of Housing and the Human Services were also monitoring the situation to provide additional resources for residents.
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I would love to ask Susan Boyed why Olive Tower, bellwether property was without the one and only elevator the entire month of Feburary, 2024 yet we did not make the news. No one offered hotel, etc. Sure, we got a discount on rent, after push back from paying tenants but they did nothing when the elevator was down 2 weeks in December 2023 and 2 weeks in January, 2023. Not everyone in the OT, can manage 14 stories. Btw, The Rise…sounds like a nitemare per reviews.
The Rise has been terribly managed since it opened this year. They’ve had several smaller fires already and the building fire alarm goes off several times a week with several fire engines in attendance each time. Residents have punched out / broken windows in units higher over the entry and left them gaping open for two weeks until I contacted the sales office to tell them it was a pedestrian hazard as large pieces hanging outward over the sidewalk. What did they do? Just put a single piece of glass to cover the outside; you can see the window is still broken on the Madison side above the entry. But man…did they call me every few days asking if I wanted to lease an apartment in the Rise. You’d think they’d put more effort into providing better management in their “flagship” location.
Housing First/harm reduction in action. Allowing the bad apples to rot in the crate, turns everything to sh*t for everyone else. The number of drug addicts and dealers in this area has gotten worse since this building opened.