While neighbor sparklingallison has been watching problems on her street up close and is now helping to organize an effort to spur action from city officials, CHS has gathered information that shines lights into the shadows of an abandoned home on Capitol Hill, what goes on inside and just how troubled the property must be for police officers to refuse to enter the building.
Photo: sparklingallison
In a police report released last week, the Seattle Police Department documents a reported robbery of a man who told officers he was jumped inside a home on Belmont Ave that matches the description of the property in Allison’s post. Responding officers do not appear to have been willing to enter the structure, however, out of concerns over ‘biozahard’ at the property.
According to the police report, the man said he was choked and robbed of $200 by two men who were also squatting in the structure near the intersection of E. Republican and Belmont in the June 14th crime. The man ran from the house after the robbery and contacted police using the infamous pay phone at the intersection of Thomas and Broadway to call 911, adding yet another reason people put that rare functioning pay phone to use.
The report says that officers went to the Belmont Ave house and checked the area but could not find anybody matching the suspect descriptions. The officers did not, however, report entering the building. “This location has significant biohazard and is unsecured by the property owner,” the officer filing the report notes. According to the report, the victim was “advised” he was trespassing at the Belmont Ave house and was “admonished” not to return to the location.
We asked the Seattle Police Department for more information about the officer’s decision to not enter the premise and the how SPD handles problem properties. The neighborhood policing unit we were referred to did not answer our calls or respond to messages for two business days plus this weekend. We will continue to follow up with the unit on Monday.
According to a SPD spokesperson, the Community Policing Team’s role is to devote focus to long-term neighborhood problems.
In Allison’s post on 502 Belmont Ave E, CHS community members document years of complaints filed against the property with the Department of Planning for issues with garbage in the yard to leaving the building unsecure. In total, the DPD Web site lists four active complaints for the property. The most recent complaint was filed way back in January 2009 and was just moved to the “law department” this February. We’ll ask DPD and City Hall more about that this coming week, too.
A city complaint against the property (View PDF)
According to King County Property records, 502 Belmont is owned by Seattle resident Kyle Clark and is for sale. Catalyst Commercial Partners, the agency trying to move the property, sent Allison this e-mail in response to her initial inquiry to them about the derelict state of the house:
Catalyst is not the owner of the property. The owner is in the process of trying to sell the properties. After the fire, the owner has been in a struggle with his insurance company to receive his coverage money to fix the house. This should be resolved soon since we have an offer on the property.
Attempts to reach Clark to speak to him about this situation have not yet been successful.
The property suffered significant damage in a November 2008 blaze. Seattle Fire Department later said that fire appeared to be started by squatters burning candles inside the house. SFD put the cost of damage in the fire at $100,000.
Another commenter on Allison’s post, MountDana, said that Capitol Hill Housing reps were at the site on Friday “out of concern for the property.” We have a call out to CHH to find out more about their involvement in helping to get this mess cleaned up.
wow, well there’s the old house i used to live next to. the cops used to visit regularly to kick out the squatters inside the house and also in the backyard. it was sometimes difficult to get them to come out even when i reported witnessing drug activity in the backyard. in the time i lived there the house was boarded up (presumably by the city) twice, and eventually the squatters would find another way in. the fire dept discovered needles in the backyard and warned us not to go near the house.
if CHS wants to know the whole sordid history of this sad old house, i recommend visiting the tenant in the front of the adjacent house, as she’s lived there for years and remembers the fire. we were constantly in fear of there being another fire (why i moved). i don’t have much sympathy for the owner, who left the place unsecured after some tenants moved out, and then even after the fire would not comply with city demands to clean the place up and secure it.
what’s up with the computer parts hanging onto the front porch at the house?? I remember people used to live there before the fire and they put up with some kind of weird dead computer art all over the front porch. I wanna know why and who did that?
A mother raccoon and her four kittens live in rotting, abandoned couch on that house’s front porch. Don’t rile her up ‘cuz she’ll defend her offspring to the hilt. Isn’t it terrific that urban Capitol Hill still is so wild — in more ways than one.
And mazel tov to neighborhood muckracker Allison Bilas for her thorough call-to-action on the dangerous situation the owner of this abandoned property has created. Shall we try to draft Allison to run for City Council? Capitol Hill historically has been underrepresented in city government influence. I like Allison’s gumption and think she’d make a wonderful politico.
The gradual deterioration of that building in beat and in contrast with the newly sprung hideous properties all along North Broadway is fascinating.
I would suggest contacting Councilmembers at City Hall. Once they start getting peppered with phone calls and emails, they have the pull to get some action on this quickly.
Council President Richard Conlin: (206) 684-880, richard.conlin@seattle.gov.
Built Environment Committee Chair Sally Clark: (206) 684-8802, sally.clark@seattle.gov.
http://seattle.blockshopper.com/property/3288100660/14212_11
I think it was “art”.
Action comes from Department of Planning and Development (DPD), which [like all City departments] answers to the Mayor.
Historically the Councilmembers did have a fair amount of influence with City departments, but Mayor Nickels took a VERY tight rein on the departments. Unclear to me what Mayor McGinn’s philosophy is.
In brief: call the Mayor!
Confused by your comment. North Broadway is improving with the new construction.
Or maybe a warning to other computers to stay away?
Thanks. We’re working to make contact. We can be reached at (206) 399-5959, btw.
Also, no, this doesn’t mean the site needs to be a clearinghouse for all ‘problem’ properties on the Hill. Let’s keep the bar high and find out what can be done by talking to neighbors, making a phone call or sending a mail.
So… drive a bulldozer over there and knock the thing to the ground. It’s a public health hazard, a refuge for criminals and possibly rabid animals, and a huge eyesore. If the property owner isn’t going to take care of it, it should be demolished and the land seized to cover the demolition costs.
OR, here’s a thought… drag that property owner out there and make him live in it until it’s taken care of. Frakkin slumlord. Don’t buy property if you can’t maintain it!
I agree with “??”. North Broadway is VASTLY improved over a few years ago. The Brix building is very classy and even (may I say?) beautiful, with several great local businesses at ground level. Don’t you remember what was there before?…a very dated and ugly Safeway with a large parking lot. The Joule building across the street is less successful, but at least it’s OK and a big improvement over the vacant old QFC, large parking lot, and marginal buildings at the north end of the block. Now, the only thing that would make these two buildings better is more occupancy!
Boy, am I getting tired of people blindly complaining of any new development in our neighborhood!! Change is good….usually!
That police do not give a flying rat-turd about the people that pay their salaries I don’t know what is.
How is a house with a suspect now a biohazard? Give me a break.
I am disgusted and saddened by what this city has turned into. Police would rather arrest nice middle class jaywalkers than do their job and track down a suspect. Unless its a teen aged girl, then they’re all about the violence and the over-reaction.
I hate what the police have turned into in this town. Absolutely hate it. There’s a war on the middle class, the cops hate us, the transients prey on us, the city taxes us more every year and cuts services.
We’re watching a slum be created before our eyes on Capitol hill, property by property, inaction by police by inaction by police, homeless camp by homeless camp, and city zoning mistake encouraging more density but not what type of density on top of that. Density without order equals slum and chaos. Thats what the city is creating in our neighborhood.
Bull! Your comment is an overreaction.
The teengage girl attacked the police officer.
If it was about marijuana, people would be complaining the police should be focusing on other things because it isn’t a priority (which doesn’t mean ignore it).
Here is something that isn’t a priority for the police and you complain they aren’t doing anything.
You can’t have it both ways.
Heh. I lived in that there house for a few years — the Hidden Mangrove it was dubbed. We liked living there an awful lot. We did get an official warning once for having too much “art” in our yard. But it was a fun and happy home. And a lot of neighbors seemed to enjoy our colorfulness. People would always stop by when we were on the porch and tell us that they liked the house and our awesome cats. Before I lived there, I lived down the street and I would always walk by that house in awe. It was awesome to answer an ad on Craigslist and have it turn out to be _that_ house (!)
My housemates and I moved out because we had to make room for more condos. It was very sad and we tried to fight it but we didn’t win. And then the condo market fell flat. And now it’s scary and crawling with weirdos, but in a bad way. So sorry to see it go down like that.
I disagree calhoun. I find the Brix building hideous. That’s not to say what was there before was much better, but still. If you walk down Mercer past all the homes that have been standing 50+ years that have style and beauty, and you come to Broadway it is a monstrous hideous building. But that is just an architecture preference I guess.
Your right, the police should have gone stomping in there.
God forbid they trip and fall on all the garbage in there and get stuck by a needle. Or since it is fire damaged, they fall through the floor or stairs. How much would that cost the city?
What do the police have to do with this home? NOTHING. I dont know how you have jumped to such brash and out of reach conclusions.
This is a problem created by the city and the numerous departments created by the city to manage these problems.