My colleague, Sally Clark, and I took a tour of the north Delridge neighborhood in West Seattle this afternoon. It was personal and eye-opening, allowing us to see the negative impact of abandoned homes.
WestSeattleBlog.com—one of the best neighborhood-based blogs in town—has reported on the tour here.
Abandoned houses quickly become magnets for crime, litter, graffiti, and "squatters," not something any neighborhood wants. The City has some tools to use to clean up these houses, but certainly not enough. For example, good-intentioned City leaders many years ago passed legislation prohibiting someone from tearing down a home until a building permit was issued for whatever was going to be built in its place. It was an effort to protect housing from being needlessly destroyed. Clearly, some exceptions to this rule need to be established since it was never intended to preclude destruction of abandoned houses like those we saw today.
More assertive enforcement of building and public health laws is also needed. Take a look at this abandoned house interior. This house was open to anyone who wanted to enter; the front door had been kicked down. Clearly, this house presents a public health risk, especially to children who may wander in.
Later this month, some of my colleagues and I will be introducing legislation to toughen the City's public nuisance laws. This new measure will help address property owners who allow their property to be used for criminal activity; some of the houses we saw today might get the extra attention they need if this legislation is adopted.
