Seattle Press on Line - Housing Committee Ignores Public Housing Tenant Concerns

Guest editorial

Housing Committee Ignores Public Housing Tenant Concerns

By Irv Thomas

May 09, 2002 -- At 75, I have pretty much retreated from political activism at the local housing level--the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) does tend, by one means or another, to wear down the most determined tenant efforts at large-scale problem redress.

Nevertheless, a recent Wednesday found me ready to do battle at an early morning meeting of the City Council Housing Committee, chaired by councilmember Richard McIver. The provocation: a poorly handled appointment process for a critical seat on the seven-member SHA Board of Commissioners.

This board, with one or two appointments made to it each year, at the sole discretion of the mayor--unless the City Council decides to intervene, which rarely happens--is the primary recourse for any citizen challenge to the workings of the Housing Authority. The appointment in question, on this Wednesday morning, was for one of two tenant seats on the board that are critical avenues of access for thousands of people whose landlord is the Seattle Housing Authority.

I am one of those, and I can testify to the fact that this board, and especially those two seats on it, are all that stands between these thousands of tenants--who are literally unable to afford any other housing than the City provides--and their total disempowerment. Hence, the appointments are critical to our well-being.

That being the case, it stands to reason that tenant input is vital to the appointive process; and that a mayor--Greg Nickels--who doesn't recognize this is derelict in his duty to that portion of the electorate.

In the instance at hand, a tenant representative who has occupied the seat for five years had been reappointed--without input from either a City Council experienced in housing matters, or tenant advocate organizations, or the tenants themselves. And I had come to the Council chambers on this (too) early morning to speak to this oversight. It was the only opportunity I had.

To my disconcerted surprise, no verbal input from those in attendance was permitted! Except, that is, from representatives of the Seattle Housing Authority, who had seats at the Council table. So the Housing Committee went through the charade of taking this limited and biased testimony, overlooking two obvious considerations:

* Facilitating the appointment to a "tenant seat" on the board with no allowed input from concerned tenants is, on its very face, a travesty.

* Considering that the very existence of a "tenant seat" suggests an avenue for tenant advocacy--presumably of a challenging nature to the Housing Authority--only the most ingenious (or collusive) would suppose that a strong SHA support for an appointee necessarily reflects the view of the tenant community.

Had I been allowed to speak that morning, I would have pointed these things out, as well as referencing the many board meetings that I attended, during this appointee's past term of service, and come away feeling that there had been no tenant voice on the board, whatsoever.

In fairness to the City Council, three members--though not the chair of the committee, Richard McIver, himself--did ask reasonably probing questions of the appointee. But without opening the session to outside input, it registered as pro forma exercise, nothing more. In fact, when the appointee made a grossly inaccurate statement at one point (alluding to regular tenant notification of board meetings), and several "thumbs down" hand signals were flashed from the audience, in full view of the Council, the matter was not further explored.

As earlier noted, the SHA tends, by one means or another, to wear down most efforts at redress--and this present instance of having co-opted the appointment process for a supposed "tenant seat" on their Board of Commissioners is just the latest example of it.

In the end, I felt as disempowered there in the City Council chambers as a plantation slave watching his friends being auctioned on the block, while those in power congratulated each other on having concluded a good transaction.

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