Remake of Rainier Valley worries many

When Wanda Saunders looks at all the development going on where she grew up, in Seattle's Rainier Valley, she can't help but feel a sense of sadness.

The rat-a-tat-tat of construction equipment across this historically low-income area holds the promise of well-paying jobs. Yet this very construction is forcing people from their homes, she said yesterday.

Not only are the newly constructed housing developments too expensive for people like her — who rely on government-subsidized housing — but a low-income housing project was demolished to make way for the new.

"In the minds of people here, they see the development happening, and it's all good," she said. "They probably voted for it. But some of us think they're pushing us out and they're making this development for the rich."

Saunders was one of about 70 area residents who spent their sunny afternoon at the Rainier Valley Community Center yesterday talking about this and other issues at a community meeting organized by the Tenants Union of Washington.

The Tenants Union, which advocates for fair housing policies, is focusing considerable energy on Seattle's south end, concerned about what it sees as a low-income squeeze-out.

It points to the recently opened Othello Station in the NewHolly housing development, which offers homes priced as high as $450,000.

The problems caused by costly new housing are exacerbated, the group says, by budget cutbacks in the federal Section 8 program, which provides vouchers to help low-income people pay their rent. Changes last year cut 289 Seattleites from the program, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C.

Saunders said she's been on a waiting list for her voucher since around 2002.

While the Tenants Union is pushing for "equitable development," which it describes as rejuvenation that allows current residents to stay, solutions to Rainier Valley's dilemma were in short supply yesterday afternoon.

City Councilman Tom Rasmussen said he's drafting legislation that would allow the city to buy property before prices go up even further, then turn it over to nonprofits to develop low-income housing.

And Sound Transit, which will build a light-rail line through Rainier Valley, has promised to give local residents a share of the jobs, but advocates yesterday said they were skeptical it will fully pan out.

Saunders, who works with an advocacy group called LELO, or Legacy of Equality, Leadership and Organizing, worries about all the changes. She talks about a new Safeway, but wonders, "Who's working there and is it really representative of the community?" She mentions a new elder-care center, and can't believe local elderly folks will ever be able to live there.

With development going up all around, she wondered, "Where is our part of it?"

Maureen O'Hagan: 206-464-2562 or mohagan@seattletimes.com