West Seattle public housing to put 'asthma-safe' construction to test

By Stuart Eskenazi
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Her fastidiousness may be helping his asthma — then again, it may not be making much difference.

"I'm not sure, because our ceiling has mold in it and he's always breathing that in," said Selamawit Gebresus, a single mother of four who lives at High Point, a 120-acre public-housing project in West Seattle.

High Point's 60-year identity as a community exclusively for the poor is changing. Its 716 units are being replaced by 1,600 new homes to be bought and rented by people whose income levels range from low to middle. Among the 350 homes set aside for very-low-income people, 35 will be built specifically to suit asthma sufferers.

Gebresus' family is a prime candidate to move into one.

"I'm just waiting," said Gebresus, whose weekdays are busy with cosmetology school and work-study. "It'll be really good for my family."

Occupants may begin moving into the "asthma-safe" homes as early as 2005, said Tom Phillips, redevelopment manager for High Point, which is owned and managed by the Seattle Housing Authority.

Although specific features have yet to be determined, they could include special ventilation systems, cabinetry free of asthma-triggering glues, wood floors instead of carpeted ones, and a central vacuum to divert sucked-up dust outside, said Dr. James Krieger, chief of epidemiology, planning and evaluation for the public-health department.

Several local agencies, including the Housing Authority, recently received $1.8 million in federal grants to assist High Point's asthma sufferers and assess whether improving their living conditions also improves their health.

In addition to a chronic dry cough and wheezing, asthma symptoms include shortness of breath and an itching and tightness in the chest. The condition, which constricts or blocks the airways of the lungs due to inflammation, is most common in children.

People who live in low-income housing have higher rates of asthma, and an estimated 10 to 12 percent of residents in public housing suffer from it, Krieger said.

"No one knows for sure the reasons why, but it is clear asthma is in a large part environmentally triggered" and that low-income people often live with dampness and poor ventilation, which contribute to mold growth and dust, he said. The local agencies expect to spend about $7,000 a unit on construction and design enhancements, including a $2,000 allowance for each family to buy furniture with designs and materials less likely to collect dust. Most of the $1.8 million from the four-year grants will be spent on research, outreach and medical evaluation of occupants.

The evaluation will include administering breathing tests, Krieger said, and the department will counsel residents on how to maintain an asthma-safe environment. The health department hopes the research will bolster a widely held but as yet unproven theory: that improved housing leads to improved health.

"What we learn could affect future public-housing policy as well as feed into the already growing interest among architects and contractors to build healthy housing," Krieger said.

All of High Point's new homes, including those not built specifically for asthma sufferers, are expected to be a huge improvement for asthma sufferers because they will be more structurally tight and have better ventilation than the old units. In addition, landscaping at the redeveloped High Point is to be free of trees and shrubs that trigger asthma and other allergies.

The idea to go after the grants began with a request from a High Point resident who, while she does not have asthma, is hypersensitive to airborne allergens. Bonita Blake, president of the High Point Community Council, said her condition prompted her suggestion that High Point be redeveloped in ways that address the respiratory health of residents.

"It was on my wish list," Blake said. "A person like myself wouldn't qualify for this new housing, and that's a little hard for me to swallow. But it's going to help many of my neighbors, and I'm very pleased about that."

Stuart Eskenazi: 206-464-2293 or seskenazi@seattletimes.com

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