(Image: The Rise)
Residents of the “largest building constructed by any affordable housing provider in Seattle” have been trying to live in the 17-story First Hill high-rise without elevator service.
Damage from a fire earlier this month has left residents of The Rise climbing up and down by stairs after the May 11th Seattle Fire response accidentally flooded the structure’s basement and destroyed elevator equipment.
Bellwether Housing says it is pushing for the repairs to happen quickly and in the meantime is moving residents who can’t make the climb to temporary hotel housing while also providing staff to handle things like packages and pets, the Seattle Times reports.
The building has been a centerpiece in recent low-income development in the city. Earlier this year, Mayor Bruce Harrell made his budget speech from the newly opened affordable high-rise housing development built on surplus Sound Transit land at Madison and Boylston. “These buildings represent the kind of outcomes we’re trying to achieve,” the mayor said.
CHS reported here in May at the opening of the joint project from Plymouth Housing and Bellwether Housing where 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.”
Bellwether says the American Red Cross and the Office of Housing and the Human Services are monitoring the situation and helping provide additional resources for residents.
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‘First Hill 17-story affordable high-rise’ sounded very familiar. Jefferson Terrace is just reopening after years of remodeling and this wouldn’t be a very good start. I hope it gets dealt with very soon.
wot a joke
Can we get parachutes same day Amazon in town here?
What about pitchforks and torches?
This isn’t surprising. The Rise is like the wild west. Fire and police personnel are at this site every single day for both the Rise and the Blake House. Nightly brawls/random screaming outside of the covered space outside of the retail space underneath it. Robbers holed up in there and had the police to route them out (Standoff with robbery suspects inside First Hill apartment unit shuts down Madison | CHS Capitol Hill Seattle News). Last time I checked two weeks ago, there were several registered sex offenders living there and this is across the street from a high school (SAAS). I see families with children in the building, but the lack responsibility of management is driving the building to feel like a rundown tenement with various predatory persons (e.g. drug dealers) parked across the street in front of SAAS which has dedicated security guards standing outside to keep an eye as kids leave and enter SAAS. Even walking on that side of the street to go to Wholefoods is dodgy. The small door alcove to the other retail space in the rise always has 1-2 people there shooting up. The alley way between the Rise and Whole Foods always has a car parked there, with various people getting in and out of it. I doubt the management team (Avenue 5) and Bellwether will do much to fix the issue as they will continue to get funding from the city/state/donors whether anyone is living there are not.
What does any of this have to do with a flooded basement?