Bellingham affordable housing tenants speak out about conditions, safety concerns at complex

Residents living at the Meadow Wood Townhomes, a low-income housing complex in north Bellingham, are speaking out after experiencing what they say have been years of unaddressed habitability issues and recent retaliation from property management.

Now, a group of tenants at Meadow Wood say they want to unionize to address the current disrepair at the complex and remove the property manager from their position.

“We’d like to see an open, non-hostile space,” said Meadow Wood resident and community activist Cináed Boyd in an interview with The Bellingham Herald. “We’d like them to come to the table and work with us on making this place better.”

In September, 37 residents had signed a petition to unionize. That petition was sent to the Bellingham and Whatcom County Housing Authority, which owns the property. It also was sent to Indigo Real Estate Services, which jointly manages the housing complex.

However many of the residents signed the petition anonymously out of fear, according to Meadow Wood resident and activist Michi Marcher.

“People are scared of retaliation and they shouldn’t have to be,” Marcher said. “People should feel comfortable living in the space their in.”

Marcher said many in the complex are facing eviction.

The petition outlines several retaliatory behaviors and illegal actions residents claim were committed by the current property manager, including improperly serving eviction notices, towing vehicles without adequate notice and threatening to delay necessary service to units.

“They were out here first thing in the morning ‘stickering’ cars. By 8, they were towing cars. It was illegal enough that they had to tow all of the cars back,” Boyd told The Herald.

As a Housing Authority complex that is federally funded, Marcher believes Meadow Wood should have a higher standard for quality and landlord operations.

“Their job as management — they’re paid by our taxes and by our rent — is to give us quality housing and treat us with basic decency and respect,” Marcher said. “If that isn’t being done, it shows an abuse of power.”

Neither someone from the Housing Authority nor Indigo Real Estate responded for comment from The Bellingham Herald after repeated requests.

Residents air concerns

Residents say their housing complex at 939 Mahogany Ave., which was built about 15 years ago, is in disrepair. They say they are worried for their safety but little is being done to address their concerns.

“At the end of the day, people don’t feel safe here,” Boyd said. “You should feel safe in your home.”

Photos taken by The Herald show damage to staircases, railings and walls. Residents said they are also struggling with damaged flooring, mold, a damaged playground set and fleas in the bark around the complex.

“It really does affect your morale if you see things in disrepair as opposed to going to different parts of the city where things are really nice,” Marcher said. “But we all deserve a basic level of respect.”

In addition to getting their basic needs and safety concerns met, Boyd and Marcher want Meadow Wood to be more of a haven for residents by adding things like a community garden, after-school programs for kids in their community center and a food pantry.

Meadow Wood has several buildings in the complex, each with a handful of units. It’s considered affordable which means housing costs can’t exceed 30% of a family’s gross income and must serve families making 80% or less of the area’s median income, according to the city of Bellingham.

Bellingham’s median household income in 2021 was $59,163, according to data provided by the U.S. Census.

As of October 2023, the average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in Bellingham was $1,500. This is a 16% increase compared to the previous year.

Broken water heaters, flooding

Sara Wellman is another resident at Meadow Wood. She’s lived there for almost four years with her kids. In mid-June, the water heater in her unit burst overnight and flooded her kitchen, dining room and living room, much of which was carpeted.

Marcher told The Herald that Wellman was one of at least three tenants who have had their water heaters burst in the last several months.

Wellman put in a request for repairs that morning. She said property management immediately shut off her water and replaced the water heater so it wouldn’t continue to flood her unit. But it wasn’t until later that evening that maintenance came to clean up the water and bring in fans to dry out the carpets.

At that time, Wellman wasn’t able to help the maintenance team move any furniture. She was told they would come back the next morning, on Friday. They never showed up. The weekend passed. Monday came and went — no visit from maintenance. Meanwhile, Wellman and her children were navigating floors covered with standing water and wet carpet.

“They were soaking wet. I had to wear rain boots. Everyone had to wear shoes,” Wellman said.

So Wellman put in another request for repairs and began moving her furniture into the outside hallway to make room for fans.

“The manager came, complaining about my stuff in the hallway,” Wellman said. “Action started happening when (the manager) realized that my stuff was out here.”

Wellman said at least a week went by before anyone came to clean up the water. Mold started to grow and cause air quality issues for the family. And her replacement water heater broke right after it was installed. So maintenance had to replace it again. Eventually, Wellman said maintenance removed her carpet after she called city code enforcement.

Wellman said she wants to be reimbursed for the excess energy bill she had to pay as a result of the fans running in her unit for weeks. It cost her several hundred dollars, she said, and her requests have gone unanswered from management.

A system of poverty

“They’re not paying people like Sara back for the time lost and damage to their things, loss and health,” Boyd said. “All of that is part of an oppressive system that keeps us poor and impoverished.”

Boyd said in a housing complex where many of the residents are living at or near the poverty line or have formerly experienced homelessness, poor living conditions contribute to keeping people in poverty.

“When people can’t keep their day-to-day needs met and they have fear of retaliation from management, they don’t have livable living spaces, they’re breathing moldy air, things like that, it’s much harder to transition your life into one of prosperity,” Boyd said.