Housing for alcoholics OK'd

A controversial project to house chronic alcoholics -- but not require them to give up booze to get a bed -- got a green light after the city's hearing examiner ruled in its favor yesterday.

Opponents last month appealed a decision by the city's Department of Construction and Land Use to grant the project a master permit.

They said the project would bring public safety, aggressive panhandling and other problems to the Denny Triangle neighborhood.

The proposed apartment building, at 1811 Eastlake Ave., has been controversial and unusual because sobriety won't be a rule for the alcoholic tenants who would live in the 75 studios.

The project would tolerate drinking by tenants while providing them with housing, meals and support services to help coax them into treatment.

"I'm looking forward to getting the project off the ground," said Bill Hobson, executive director of the Downtown Emergency Services Center, the non-profit social-service agency that will build and manage the building. "This takes the project out of the legal limbo it's been in."

The $8.6 million housing project has funding from the city, county, state and federal governments. Demolition of the current building is expected to begin early next year, Hobson said.

Meanwhile, disappointed opponents said yesterday they would figure out their next course of action.

"We disagree with her (the hearing examiner's) decision," said Richard Aramburu, the attorney who represented the Eastlake Downtown Community Association, which filed the appeal.

Formed to oppose it, the group comprises three businesses located near the proposed project -- Marriott Springhill Suites Hotel, Northwest Trophy and the Benaroya Co., which owns several mixed-used office towers.

Members of the association worried that the project would drive away business and residents.

"We're not surprised, but we're frustrated," said Robb Anderson, co-owner of Northwest Trophy.

The group appealed the land-use approval, saying the land-use department didn't give adequate notice about the project and didn't properly assess the potential problems to the neighborhood, such as public urination, violence and other criminal behaviors.

In her decision issued yesterday, hearing examiner Meredith Getches cited other housing projects, such as the Wintonia in Capitol Hill, where homeless chronic alcoholics have been good neighbors, even when they continue to drink.

Although chronic alcoholics living on the streets can create problems for a neighborhood, Getches noted, those who are in housing "can be good neighbors and do not have those serious and harmful impacts on a neighborhood."

The project is based on the "harm-reduction theory," which seeks to lessen problems such as crime and public health dangers while tolerating certain addictions.

Opponents of the harm-reduction theory, however, say that it enables alcoholics to drink.

Dr. Kathleen Decker, a psychiatrist who testified for opponents during the hearing, said the lack of abstinence would decrease tenants' interest in seeking treatment.

If chronic alcoholics don't have housing, the emergency services center's Hobson said, they'll continue to live their addictions in the city's streets, parks and alleys.

Hobson said tenants would be expected to follow rules of behavior similar to ones in place at four other housing projects his center runs.

"It's not a silver bullet," he said, "but it's a start."

P-I reporter Phuong Cat Le can be reached at 206-903-0370 or phuongle@seattlepi.com

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