Downtown Redmond is booming. Especially the stretch along Cleveland Street that boasts prime real estate surrounded by small businesses, brand new condominiums, and a light rail extension projected expected to increase foot traffic.
But an empty parcel of land in the area could also be home to one of the most controversial homeless housing providers in the region.
Records show that Plymouth Housing is attempting to build a 100-unit apartment building for the chronically homeless. The low barrier facility would house active drug users and those with untreated mental illness.
The Redmond City Council will vote on the evening of Tuesday the 13th on a land transfer that would give the five and a half million-dollar property to Plymouth for free. The city would also chip in more than 3 million dollars to support the project.
According to locals like Abby Arthur, the problem is that no one from the city told residents and business owners what was going on. “Let the community know,” Arthur says about the project.
Thomas Yuen owns a computer surplus store next to the proposed project site and says it feels like city leaders are leaving locals in the dark.
“Don’t get me wrong, help them,” says Yuen, “but why do you want to pick the downtown of a city? What’s the whole purpose?”
There has been zero community engagement about this land transfer.
I reached out to mayor Angela Birney and other city leaders for an explanation but have not received any comment.
Along with concerns about transparency, it appears there was no bidding process for this land either.
Paul Lee believes it’s all by design. “It seems like they’re actually counting on a community that doesn’t know,” says Lee.
Lee is one of the administrators operating “Kenmore Neighbors,” an influential community Facebook group that took on Plymouth Housing last year and convinced the city council to block them from moving into the downtown core.
“The [Plymouth] CEO was first to talk and first to leave and didn’t care what the community had to say,” Lee describes the Kenmore council meeting. At the meeting, Plymouth CEO Karen Lee said that “Housing First is a very, very effective way to keep people stably housed.”
Angry residents claimed Plymouth did a bait and switch, selling the project initially as affordable housing for veterans and senior citizens, and then last minute changing it to apartments for chronic homelessness with no treatment requirements.
Lee says putting up a massive building like this in the heart of downtown Redmond would become a disaster, leading to more crime and open air drug use in the area. He points to several Plymouth housing facilities in Seattle and says the conditions inside and outside are deplorable.
“It seems like it’s just a bit of a mess in Seattle that’s being spread across the state,” Lee tells me.
He’s encouraging residents to mobilize against this project before it’s too late. “My final warning is wake up, you’ve got to talk to each other,” says Lee, “because if you don’t, you will regret it.”