Construction Expected To Begin February 5th On Berkshire Low Barrier Housing

Today was a day for speeches and talking about cooperation during the groundbreaking of Everett’s first low barrier housing project. It is located on Berkshire drive just east of Evergreen Way and west of the Everett Fire Department’s training tower in central Everett.

Back on November 13th, 2014 the Everett Community Streets Initiative Task Force released its report highlighting sixteen separate strategies and over sixty supporting action items that the Task Force believed should be pursued to address street level social issues in Everett.

The recommendations ranged from specific public safety measures, to expanding outreach to the street population, to enhancing services and treatment available to street populations, to increasing the supply of shelter and permanent housing. You can click here to see the report and all of the recommendations.

The Housing First model was one of the long-term recommendations in the report and today marked the first of three groundbreaking events this year of such projects in Everett. The other two are HopeWorks Station II on Broadway and Cocoon House on Colby.

Now that ground has officially been broken, Catholic Housing Services will begin an outreach program to everyone living within a 500 foot radius of the project outlining the construction schedule and providing a phone number to contact a construction manager with any concerns over construction-related nuisances. Construction is expected to take between 12 and 18 months.

The Everett City Council recently passed a series of covenants restricting the building and how it is used. Some of the highlights in the covenants are:

• Residents must be considered Chronically Homeless which is defined as a homeless individual with a disability who lives in a place not meant for human habitation, a safe haven or emergency shelter and has been living as such for at least 12 months.
• Residents must be Low Income which is defined as having a gross annual household annual income at or below 50 percent of the local area median income.
• Admissions must be prioritized with the greatest barriers to housing such as being homeless the longest period of time or have the highest service needs. The admissions policy must not require tenant sobriety or participation in mental health treatment as preconditions to admission.
• Residents will not be allowed if they have criminal convictions for methamphetamine production, convicted of arson or convicted of sex offenses or who have exhibited serious or recent violent behavior.
• All residents must be referred through the Snohomish County Coordinated Entry System in consultation with the City of Everett’s CHART program. There is no requirement the resident has to be from Everett but does have to reside in Snohomish County.
• The facility has to have staff on site 24-hours-a-day.
• The covenants last at least 50 years.

You can follow the progress of the Safe Streets Initiative here on the city’s website.