The deadline for the first wave of families to start vacating Courtyard Village Apartments has been extended for a potential two weeks, according to residents and the family-community resource coordinator at nearby Washington Elementary School.
Washington is serving as the primary point of contact for all residents facing displacement as new owner MF Parc Central empties the blighted complex of buildings and starts to work on renovations. Residents and Carla Feltz, the coordinator of Washington’s family-community resource center, said Monday that MF Parc Central, which notified 16 families that they’d have to vacate by the end of this month, is now offering to extend that deadline until Jan. 15 — if the tenants come in to discuss their hardship.
More residents are expected to be told to leave early next year. Courtyard Village Apartments is a complex of 151 units in numerous buildings at 2600 T St. The place is notoriously dilapidated, and even the tenants and housing advocates who have sounded the alarm about people winding up homeless have not disputed that it needs major work.
“There is no doubt in my mind this complex is in desperate need of repair, renovation and renewal,” Feltz posted on Facebook. But, she added, she’s spent the past week hearing about all sorts of desperate situations: “Stories of single moms who left abusive situations to protect their children and this was the only place they could rent because of no credit or poor credit and because it was affordable. Stories of the working poor who barely get by but somehow manage. Stories of ‘We are not going to buy Christmas presents or a Christmas tree after all’ because they need to pay rental application fees. I see the worry in the children’s eyes and I tell them not to worry, that this is a grownup problem.”
She added that she’s been approached by at least one panicked elderly resident who cannot fill out any rental paperwork due to complete functional illiteracy. Feltz has promised to help that person, every step of the way.
John O’Neil, the executive vice president of MF Parc Central, did not respond to a query Monday from The Columbian. Last week he told a reporter he would deal directly with residents of the building, not with the media.
Meanwhile, local nonprofit agencies, churches, private businesses and others are lining up to offer what help they can.
Computers and credit
The Vancouver First United Methodist Church at 401 E. 33rd St. will host three sessions where people affected by the crisis can use in-house computers, as well as live Spanish translation, in order to apply online for available apartments. Those sessions are set for:
• 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday.
• 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday.
• 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday.
Just down the street from the church is the Community Housing Resource Center, a nonprofit agency that specializes in financial counseling and education. The center has offered “any assistance possible” to help Courtyard Village tenants work through financial and credit-rating challenges that could prevent them from renting new apartments. That includes examining individual credit reports to find problems and developing action plans for working with landlords; it also means free tax preparation to get ahold of refunds as quickly as possible. These services are free.
The Community Housing Resource Center is at 103 E. 29th St., near Main Street. Visit http://homecen.org or call 360-690-4496.
Sunday run
Sherri McMillan, the owner of Northwest Personal Training, has announced an informal 3-mile fundraising run-walk Sunday morning to bolster the account created by the Council for the Homeless to help displaced residents with moving expenses, such as damage deposits and first and last month’s rent payments. There’s a Facebook announcement about the event, the Holiday Run/Walk to raise funds for the displaced residents of Courtyard Village, but no formal registration or paperwork is required. Just show up with your donation ($10 minimum is requested); checks should be made out to Council for the Homeless with “Courtyard Village” on the memo line.
“No medals, no T-shirts, no timing,” McMillan wrote on Facebook, “just an opportunity to help out some people who are in a really bad situation during the holiday season.”
The run-walk is set for 9 a.m. Sunday, beginning at Torque Coffee Roasters, 501 Columbia St. It will proceed along the Columbia River waterfront.
Or, if you don’t want to run but do want to send help directly, mail your check to the Council for the Homeless, 2500 Main St., Vancouver, 98660; make sure to write “Courtyard Village” in the memo line.
Mercy or justice?
David Tinney, pastor at the Methodist church, said his congregation has been tending Washington Elementary School and its neighborhood for the last few years with charity drives, hot meals, a walking school bus and more.
“We have made it our neighborhood and our kids’,” he said. “We are really trying hard to keep them in school and not move them around from school to school.”
He said First United Methodist will be cooking and delivering a couple of free hot meals to Courtyard Village families after school is closed down for the holidays and kids aren’t getting cafeteria lunches. His church’s Christmas Eve collection plate will be dedicated entirely to that Council for the Homeless moving fund, he said. The congregation has already gone two rounds of “giving trees” for the kids — one for toys for the littlest ones and, when that was rapidly fulfilled, a second round of gift cards and other, cooler stuff for the teens, he said.
All of which is well and good, Tinney said, but it’s not nearly enough.
“We’re working on the mercy and compassion piece, but sooner or later we have to address the justice piece of this,” he said. “How do we get to a situation where there is no affordable housing in this area? That’s the bigger issue. How do we as a city address this issue?” He said this matter is “a marathon, not a sprint,” and displaced residents will still need help long after the holiday season and its charitable spirit faded.
“This isn’t just ‘Merry Christmas,’ ” agreed Ceci Ryan Smith, a member of the congregation and low-income housing advocate. “This is a crisis that isn’t going away.”
On Monday morning, Feltz said she’s been calling apartment complexes near and far in search of vacancies and learning for herself just what low-income housing advocates have warned: There’s little to be found.
“On the east side there is no vacancy,” she said. “There are waiting lists everywhere. Even for people who have a good rental history, it’s going to be very challenging.”
The Clark County apartment vacancy rate is so tight — somewhere around 2.5 percent — that private landlords are able to be extremely selective about the tenants applying for space, advocates have said. Meanwhile, some market-watchers have condemned the strategy of buying older, shabbier properties in order to renovate them and raise the rents.
“Although the new owners may be within their rights, we have seen this happening time and again as landlords and property owners capitalizing on the shortage of housing are able to attract higher rents,” said Charlene Dahlen, deputy director of the Community Housing Resource Center.
Tinney wondered if the people at MF Parc Central are giving any real thought to the potential disruption of as many as 85 children’s schooling because of this matter.
“It’s just unholy,” he said.
