Notices to 50 low-income residents: Get out

The 36-year-old found the notice taped to her front door Tuesday.

Residents at Ghim Village, 1304 N.E. 88th St., were notified earlier in the summer that new owners and managers were taking over the complex to renovate the units and presumably increase rent, Kiemele said. Residents were worried, wondering whether the same companies that handled Courtyard Village would handle Ghim Village the same way, leaving many people homeless.

“They promised that they would not do that,” Kiemele said. Residents were told outside renovations would be done first and that they wouldn’t have to move out until the beginning of 2016. Kiemele kept her eye on places to move but hadn’t done any serious searching because she thought she had more time. So little was on the market when she looked that she felt grateful that, for the time being, she had housing.

The Tuesday notices came as a surprise. The notice says the construction schedule changed, resulting in this month’s vacate notices a few days after tenants paid rent. Kiemele used to pay $675 for rent, but it went up this month and last month, with her most recent payment being $755.

The renovations are intended to “provide a cleaner and healthier environment” for residents, the notice said. Residents can apply for a transfer within Ghim Village on a first-come, first-served basis. The notice also points people to the Council for the Homeless’ housing hotline.

“It’s not easy just to get into a brand new place,” Kiemele said. “In our price range, there’s really nothing here in Vancouver.”

Kiemele has lived at Ghim Village for almost three years because it’s affordable and the previous owners looked past her prior eviction.

“A lot of places, they frown upon that. At the time, it was the only place I could get into,” Kiemele said.

Scrambling for housing

Like the former Courtyard Village Apartments (now called Parc Central), Ghim Village represents the lower end of Clark County’s rental housing inventory. The buildings are older and not well-kept, Kiemele said. One resident said the new management replaced her refrigerator but did not replace her dishwasher that’s leaking sludge.

“Right now, I’m scrambling to find a place to move to in the next couple of weeks,” Kiemele said. “There’s a possibility that we’ll have to relocate to Longview, and that’s going to hurt.”

Her son is at Gaiser Middle School and her daughter at Skyview High School, and Kiemele is wary of uprooting them.

Kimele has a full-time job in Orchards and also works part time in Battle Ground; her husband works in Ridgefield. Although the prospect of a longer commute may strain the family, there’s simply more affordable, available housing in Cowlitz County.

“People are leaving the area in search of lower-cost housing,” said Andy Silver, executive director of the Council for the Homeless. He’s “very nervous” about the situation families at Ghim Village are entering, given the low vacancy rates in Clark County.

“This isn’t a one-time problem. This is going to keep happening in our current housing market,” Silver said.

Madrona Ridge told him a few months ago that they would send out vacate notices at Ghim Village in early 2016 and renovate the building. Recently, they contacted him again to let him know the renovation schedule was moved up, and that some vacate notices would be served in September and the remainder in October.

“It’s hard to sustain the type of response that was done for Courtyard Village,” Silver said, referencing an emergency fund that was started for displaced residents to help them secure new housing. “We’re talking to folks to see what can be done.”

Schools offer aid

About half of the households at Ghim Village have students in Vancouver Public Schools, namely Gaiser Middle School and Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School, said Alishia Topper, director of strategic partnerships for the district’s family-community resource centers. Thirteen middle school students and 20 elementary school students will be affected by the vacate notices, Topper said.

She believes many of these families won’t find housing within the school district’s boundaries given the low vacancy rate, which hovers around 2 percent. Through the McKinney-Vento Education of Homeless Children and Youth Assistance Act, a federal law, those children who end up elsewhere can still be bused to their current school.

The district plans to hold an informational meeting early next week for affected families to connect them with housing resources and other social services. Also in the works is an emergency fund that will help families pay for rental application fees and deposits.

There is also no room in emergency shelters, Topper said. Vancouver Housing Authority is opening up its Section 8 waiting list, so families who become homeless after leaving Ghim Village and meet the criteria can be referred to the waiting list, she said.

School staff were notified that children at Ghim Village may be carrying stress that could affect their attendance and performance at school. When Courtyard Village families got 20-day notices last winter, family-community resource centers noticed the children were dealing with that burden.

Topper is a Vancouver City Council member and part of the Affordable Housing Task Force, which drafted ordinances that would help protect vulnerable renters in the city, including requiring longer vacate notices. Ghim Village is outside the city limits, where no such task force has been formed.

“Obviously it’s an issue that doesn’t stop at our city boundaries,” Topper said.

Patty Hastings: 360-735-4513; twitter.com/pattyhastings; patty.hastings@columbian.com