Something had to give in the ongoing fight over a mold-ridden apartment complex in Puyallup. That something will likely be aggrieved tenants’ day in court.
The Pierce County Housing Authority’s board of commissioners voted this week to seek bankruptcy protection rather than continue fighting lawsuits stemming from problems at Eagle’s Watch on South Hill.
The move comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by 81 current and former Eagle’s Watch tenants who say they were harmed by unchecked mold problems at the 193-unit complex.
For the small agency that provides subsidized and affordable housing for about 8,000 people in Pierce County, a failed attempt at settlement Monday proved the breaking point.
Officials weren’t chiefly worried about an actual court judgment. The housing authority’s pockets were never all that deep; it has no taxing authority and most of its budget is pass-through money from the federal government. It put much of the money it did have on hand toward the $1.95 million cost of resolving a similar lawsuit by 25 other tenants last year.
The bigger threat was litigation costs. In last year’s settlement, by far the biggest chunk went to pay both sides’ legal teams. Agency officials say they were faced with the prospect of a slow bleed culminating in a bill for damages that might never be paid.
It is unfortunate it has come to this. Although technically the housing authority has never admitted fault, there can be little doubt that it didn’t always live up to its responsibility to provide safe housing.
The agency knew that Eagle’s Watch had a mold problem when it bought the complex in the early 1990s, but never finished work to fix the underlying cause. It seems to be doing its best to keep on top of the problem now, but still faces $4 million in repair costs to solve it once and for all.
Bankruptcy sacrifices tenants’ rights to hold the housing authority accountable, but it does so on the altar of another worthy cause – the preservation of much-needed affordable housing in Pierce County. The housing authority anticipates no disruption to its ability to provide monthly housing vouchers and manage rental properties.
But bankruptcy could prevent the agency from doing more to meet the growing need for decent workforce housing. The county estimates it needs 30,000 more units of housing within reach of a family of four making $51,000 or less. With rents rising faster here than anywhere else in recent months, that deficit is sure to grow.
That’s perhaps the biggest injustice to emerge from the fight over Eagle’s Watch.
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