Home › Forums › Open Discussion › SHA is mis-managing High Point
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June 2, 2009 at 10:51 pm #591094
HighpointresidentMemberIn the past two years that my family has moved to the high point comunity i have noticed that SHA is not taking responsiblity for the basics at High Point. The grouds are a mess with weeds growing everywhere. The home owners must adhere to a standard of care, but the SHA does not. When addressing the issue with SHA Management they are more concerned in filling the new housing they have built rather than take care of the basic maintenance. The older units are weed infested jungles with trash spewed everywhere. The resdidents are not taking pride in this community.
Does anyone else feel the same way?
June 2, 2009 at 11:48 pm #668617
vincentMemberWasn’t the point that the residents would brow beat each other into compliance. The whole point of government assisted housing is to become the shining examples of liberal policy gone wrong that conservatives LOVE.
June 3, 2009 at 12:11 am #668618
jayjayb74ParticipantI totally agree. I have lived here since it opened and I am getting pretty ticked with how it is being managed. I look at weeds all of the time and have gone out and pulled them myself since it ticks me off so much. Maybe we should get together and complain more!!
June 3, 2009 at 4:25 am #668619
hammerheadParticipantoh and just wait till it gets torn down AGAIN and everybody leaves their cats behind. Oh joy. basically all that stuff they built was a waste of money. the people who live there have NO respect, reason because it was GIVEN to them. I don’t know the ins and outs about the place. that is were liberals do drop the ball. so in this issue i guess i would be a conservative LOL
June 3, 2009 at 4:36 am #668620
jamminjMembercurious, I live near 34th & Graham (right behind Elizabeth House), and in my immediate area, I see more home owners (& renters) with messy yards than anyone specifically in HighPoint.
Can you post some pics, cross-streets?
If you can’t post pics, I can take some pics and post them online, and maybe we can get WSB to do a story on Hightpoint and its (mis)management.
June 3, 2009 at 4:47 am #668621
sunshineParticipantSHA, like every other govt agency right now, probably doesn’t have budget to spare.
Maybe instead of getting together to complain, we could get together for a work party. Invite the residents, have the tools available, get something done.
This statement, “the people who live there have NO respect, reason because it was GIVEN to them”
1) generalizes unfairly and inaccurately
2) assumes that certain behavior reflects lack of respect (when it could be the result of lack of tools, knowledge or physical well-being)
3) Attributes cause without any sort of causal link. I know a lot of my West Seattle neighbors didn’t earn the property they own, they were given it as an inheritance. And yet many of them keep it up well.
June 3, 2009 at 1:31 pm #668622
KenParticipantSO. Give some specifics.
I live across from the oldest portion of the redevelopment and the largest concentration of subsidized rental units in the entire neighborhood.
There are landscape crews picking up windblown trash (only that which comes to rest on the SHA side of course) every week and the landscape crew spends every day rain or shine, weeding mowing and operating its incredibly noisy gas leaf blowers and weed eaters. Yesterday I saw a crew spend the entire day weeding the area around the rental units across the street. They have been spending 10x as much time on the landscaping around the “homeowners” tiny lots.
On the NON SHA side of the street, we fight the incredibly poor landscape design that planted bear berries in a mixture of gravel, sand and weed infested thin topsoil. The non sha side of the street (including mine) sometimes resembles a dandelion plantation. Some of my neighbors have already removed the landscaping and replaced it with mowable grass.
I intend to plant strawberries on my 3 level rockery and let them choke out the weeds and the landscape crap.
Non of the residents that I know, subsidized or owners, have the tools or the permission to alter their outdoor environment so it is indeed SHA’s responsibility (or the HA, who knows)
SHA HAS to concentrate on selling phase two since so many of the alleged “green” builders withdrew from their commitments when the easy loans went away and housing prices started to drop or stopped moving up at ridiculous rates.
Talk to your “Homeowners Association” if you want to whine about your yard.
If you want to whine about my yard you can do so here for all the good it will do ya :)
I did not sign any obfuscated contract the way you did :) but I read it.
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.
— Tom Waits, “Step Right Up”
June 3, 2009 at 2:32 pm #668623
hammerheadParticipantwe are talking about highpoint. i am not talking about people who got an inheritance. we talking about sec 8, or what ever the low income, goverment assistance people get. I see and deal with it on a regular basis. Even put flyers out to try and hire. NO ONE wants to work. but back to the landscaping: get the people who live there and can do some landscaping (like you said ab above) and put them to work, then of course we have to worry about liabilities. again the goverment is out of money. i am just saying make the people who live there do some volunteer work to get the job done. of course the people who can do it
June 3, 2009 at 2:32 pm #668624
JoBParticipantKen…
somehow i don’t think that not altering landscape pertains to pulling weeds…
a work party is a great idea… if for no other reason than to set an example… they may be under the mistaken impression that they are not allowed to pull the weeds.
any community with a community garden has some tools… and you don’t need much in the way of tools to pull weeds. I have done so with goodwill meat forks… at about a quarter each… if done the morning after irrigation.. it is even easier.
I live next door to a dandelion and weed factory myself… but not in high point. I too am choosing plants that grow like weeds in the hope they will choke them out.
anyone wanting mint for their julep would do well to contact me:)
June 3, 2009 at 4:16 pm #668625
vincentMemberYeah work party, go clean up the yard for them, that will show them! Maybe the reason they are not cleaning up is they are waiting for someone else to do it for them. YOU WIN
June 3, 2009 at 4:33 pm #668626
JoBParticipantJune 3, 2009 at 4:44 pm #668627
vincentMember“hello section 8 resident, your low income style of leaving trash and not being neat enough upsets my passive aggressive sensibilities, can we hold hands and clean your yard to my personal standards”
I am sure that will go over well.
June 3, 2009 at 4:55 pm #668628
JoBParticipantVincent…
hello to all neighbors who leave trash and aren’t neat..
yesterday.. i offered to cut my neighbor’s grass and help him with his weed problem… he told me he had someone scheduled to come.. but we will see… if he doesn’t.. i will have it cut.
it sure beats reporting him and cutting down the weeds will help stop them from seeding my yard.
people are people.. whether they are housed in section 8 housing or in the homes they own.
a good deal of section 8 housing in neighborhoods goes unnoticed by neighbors because the tenants are so grateful to have a nice place to live that they keep it up.
the yard maintenance issues at High Point are not supposed to be the tenant’s responsibility any more than they are supposed to be the tenants responsibility at most condos or apartments or many townhomes.
But i know apartment and condo dwellers who weed and plant the dirt strip next to the walk and regularly pick up the trash left in the common areas…
Perhaps this is just something they don’t understand they can do… the community garden there is definately well tended.
June 3, 2009 at 6:52 pm #668629
JimmyGMemberDon’t know how this could come as a shock to anyone.
All you have to do is look at the rest of the SHA properties throughout the city and see how they manage the grounds.
Did someone think this HP SHA was going to be a different SHA from the rest?
June 3, 2009 at 7:03 pm #668630
JoBParticipantgood point.
June 3, 2009 at 9:55 pm #668631
jayjayb74ParticipantMy biggest problem is that I do pay to have the grounds maintained. I pay my bill every month so I am holding up my end of the bargain…..as far as the SHA/HOA …..they are not holding up their end by maintaing the property.
I think the goal of posting this (at least mine) is to bring more visablity to the problem as my complaints have fallen on deaf ears……
As far as the renters go…..I wish people would take more pride in where they lived. In general, I think the owners take more pride because they have more “skin” in the game. I wish there was a way to hold everyone more accountalble.
June 3, 2009 at 10:38 pm #668632
vincentMemberThis whole thread reads like recruiting material for the republican party.
welfare fail ( section 8 )
class warfare (pride etc )
investment in ones own future
having things handed to you ends poorly
June 4, 2009 at 2:34 am #668633
jayjayb74ParticipantBeing someone who is accountable and considerate of their community has nothing to do with being republican. And in fact I am not.
My beef is that everyone who lives in this community should have something vested in this. It could be a great place but everyone needs to do a better job of making this work. This includes the renters, the SHA, the home owners and the HOA.
June 4, 2009 at 6:02 am #668634
KenParticipantPerhaps I was not clear.
I live across from the largest concentration of subsidized rentals in the Highpoint phase one redevelopment.
98% of the residents of subsidized housing that I see don’t litter, don’t overfill their trash cans, or have any weeds in their surrounding landscaping except where children playing have scuffed up the bark mulch.
There are several families in the subsidized housing who sweep the alley by hand, pick up trash between visits by the SHA crew and berate neighborhood kids who get too loud.
The neighbors who grow the incredible Market garden veggies and flowers that embarrass all us half assed gardeners in the neighborhood also live nearby.
http://www.seattlemarketgardens.org/farmers.html
SHA (or their contractor Impact management) sent out a crew to pull weeds in addition to their regular mowing and trimming.
This is the same damn crew the housing association OR SHA OR Impact management has doing the weeding and mowing and trimming around all the freakin overpriced postage stamp condos, carriage houses and townhomes in the neighborhood as well. They do this ten times as often as the market rate housing for reasons known only to SHA.
If some of you want to whine about how unfair it is that these people don’t pull weeds or own lawnmowers, consider this.
The rents , even subsidized are still a substantial portion of their income. If your mortgage was the same percentage, with no equity, I suspect you would sell your condo and flee to Renton.
At least one family member is required to be working or have a disability. These people are not leaving their homes on pleasure trips for 8 to ten hours a day (And many on night shift). Some are refugees. Some are ill, and a few really are mentally, physically or developmentally disabled.
So are a few on my side of the street.
The same percentage of residents in the market rate housing are also good neighbors. The two percent that overstuff their trashcans, don’t pick up there dog poo, park their second SUV on my street and make drunken noise day and night are not.
Neither group weeds their parking strip.
June 4, 2009 at 3:03 pm #668635
jayjayb74ParticipantKen,
You opinion isn’t the only one that counts. I live here too and see something different. IT’s called an opnion. Maybe if you lived on my street you would have a different perspective. Oh and I realize there are some great people here…..I talk to them every day.
And if you want to see someone weeding their parking strip you can see me at least once a week in the morning doing so…..
June 4, 2009 at 5:13 pm #668636
JoBParticipantJayjayb74…
so teach the neighborhood children to weed..
bribe them if you must..
when i was growing up a sweet older neighbor lady paid a penny for every dandelion with a root we could bring her… we eradicated dandelions in not only that neighborhood but for several blocks surrounding it:)
i suspect she thought she got good value. her yard and the neighboring yards were free of weeds and the kids too busy searching them out to cause mischief nearby.
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