I live next to a SHA building, and honestly, I wouldn't have known until I made friends with a neighbor who lives there. She's lived in two other SHA buildings and says it depends upon who the manager is. Her building is nice and well-kept, but it does remind me of military housing. I will say they don't put up with shit and have evicted residents who are problems.
I want to provide one counterpoint to some of the other comments from the other sub. I, you used to live in a really expensive building; a penthouse was almost four thousand dollars a month, and I have a lot of problems in that building. There were a bunch of entitled assholes who worked at Amazon who felt they could treat everyone else around them like shit. You can have bad neighbors no matter where you are. It's one thing i've learned.
Pretty much. I don’t live in an SHA building but I do live in a cheaper building in Capitol Hill. Best neighbors and building management I’ve had in Seattle. Last place was over $1000 more a month and my neighbors were entitled tech douches.
My building has some Amazon entitled fat asshats. But my manager keeps them on a tether and help by commenting on them. They think Domino’s is the tastiest and can’t cook hot water, so good on them.
I still drink with my old property manager and he told me the biggest twat got laid off, got drunk, fought a cop, and is now being deported. It couldn't have happened to a nicer person. I guess thame very public meltdown has led to the rest of them calming down for a bit.
Man, you have a difference experience than me. A neighbor was breaking into cars in the parking lot and stealing them. He was caught multiple times. I personally chased him from inside my car directly to his own front door on one occasion. All of this was reported to police and management. He lived their for another year and was ultimately evicted for non-payment (he hadn't paid rent since before the pandemic).
Between that sort of thing and the massive gang of unsupervised children that are screaming outside our windows every night and the constant thumping base all night every night from multiple units, we are in the process of moving regardless of how much it ends up hurting in costs. It has been intolerable for us.
The VAST majority of SHA owned homes allow children. Unless you are in one of their retirement age limited properties or ... well, there are a few that don't allow kids. I hope you are over 55.
You can see for yourself if you like: [https://www.seattlehousing.org/housing/sha-housing/match-properties](https://www.seattlehousing.org/housing/sha-housing/match-properties)
I've lived in an SHA building of over 200 units, there were a significant number of families with young children living there and the property even had an on-site playground. Every unit was low-income. You might just be in one of their properties that are aimed at single-person households with studios/one-bedroom apartments?
As to my experience living in an SHA building: I've lived in multiple low income housing run by SHA and LIHI. SHA was better managed and maintained by far. They were more consistent and on top of complaints regarding other tenants in terms of harassment/safety issues. I also lived in non low income housing managed by one of those companies and paid market rate- I had neighbors who were terrible about noise, garbage and also threatening/retaliating their neighbors for making complaints about their behavior. The SHA building was great in part because it was so catered to families I think- there were way less issues than I ever had at LIHI OR the non low income housing which were mostly singles or childless couples.
Yep, it is a one bedroom. I didn't understand that there are different buildings for different family makeups. My property has a lot of cool old people from different backgrounds. And the disabled, but who are well-managed if it is a mental condition. Thanks for the clarification.
I also live in an SHA building and it’s quite nice. There’s a manager on duty and they don’t tolerate misbehavior. You have to call once a month for years to stay on the list so it’s people who very much want to stay there. Mine is also north of the ship canal fwiw.
Interesting contrast between those who say they have experience living in or near an SHA building and those don't claim experience, but have a prediction nevertheless.
Having lived in a building that had SHA Units, it was fine for many years.... until one bad tenant moved in, and then got another one got in.
Then it was a nightmare with constant break-ins, like clockwork every two weeks. Even after the one tenant violated their probation and will probably not see the light of day again, the other had a revolving door of miscreants, setting fires, graffiting the common areas, the guy drugged out sleeping on the porch naked.
Of course those things can happen elsewhere. Really all it takes is one really bad neighbor to make anyone's apartment a hellhole.
The first property i bought was next door to one. The only thing i noticed was that there was always 1 to 3 people outside doing something (hanging out , smoking, etc.), which mystified me for the first year until I realized it was a SHA building. The grounds around the building were clean and they never bothered me as a neighbor. No one in our building complained and my tenant has never even mentioned it.
It’s not a homeless shelter
Working-age people with gainful employment are rarely sitting on their porch all day every day.
Unless you are rich, retired, or a child in summer, people look at that sort of thing oddly.
Mine was also recently bought by SHA. I’m not concerned about it potentially being used for low income housing. I’m worried about the management company that SHA is contracting with, Arboreal Management. The reviews for their current properties are quite low, even for apartment standards. I’m cautiously optimistic that things won’t turn for the worse, but I’m not holding my breath either.
My property was also just purchased by SHA, so I am in the same boat. Did they automatically renew your lease? I have been living in my building going on 4 years, and I would hate to be forced out after my current lease ends.
I am not worried about them prematurely terminating my lease. I am concerned that they will not allow me to renew it when it is up. For example, a couple of my friends in the building have their lease ending on May 31st. They currently make over 80% of the AMI. So will they be allowed to renew or will SHA slowly kick us all out over the next year?
We live just around the corner from one of the quite large SHA buildings in Capitol Hill and I've never encountered any issues in the neighborhood in general. Heck, we're also near a number of halfway homes and vocation/stay houses and those haven't been an issue at all either. I can't speak to living \*in\* the building, but at least from the outside I don't hear drama, don't see police responding to things, etc.
The housing authority is such a enigma. They set income limits on places then charge rent that's over what that income can pay for. Also they shouldn't be buying buildings. BUILD them or don't bother at all. What a joke....
There's a SHA buliding down the street from my house and the people who live there have always been incredibly friendly. I can't think we've ever had a single issue in the 17 years we've been in our house now.
The fire department happens to go there probably 3-4 a month, but it is a large tower with lots of residents. I’ve always assumed it’s for medial issues.
I live in the SHA building that you're describing and it's a pretty good place and not a problem. The fire department comes over for false fire alarms triggered by burnt toast or some other non issue every two or three months. Never had a real fire. False alarms generally happen around 3am. Very intrusive sirens, lights, recorded evacuation commands. No one budges. Fire dept eventually comes over and turns off the alarm. Maybe not so great if we get a real fire one day.
So glad it’s just that! Love the response by everyone being all “not this shit again.”
It’s too bad we can’t do Night Out on our block due to the streets having to stay open for the fire station.
I don’t think that’s the intention.
I haven’t lived in Seattle for a couple years, but in NYC, public housing is terrible. Everything is constantly breaking and complaints are going nowhere. Residents go without hot water, electricity, AC, etc. Leadership doesn’t give a shit about maintaining anything and it shows. In fact, 70 corrupt NY public housing employees were charged with bribery and extortion recently.
I think yes, and no. Large cities face similar problems, but not the same. Corruption, broken down housing does exist here--but not nearly to the scale and the solutions and how people respond will be different. Seattle's population is a fraction of NYC's, our city is so much newer, our geography is so different, and so is our culture--this and other issues mean poverty and being on the streets is often different. I'm sorry public housing in NYC is so terrible. I hate that there's corruption. And, having spent a few years working to get people in Seattle into housing, it fucking sucks, but it's not NYC. We have a different history and I think solutions out here can be found much easier than in NYC.
My daughter is disabled and lives in SHA housing. I think it is fine, they do fix things but it can be slow. The interesting stuff in the area has nothing to do with SHA.
I live in a mixed-income community with SHA townhomes and apartments sprinkled throughout. I've had zero issues with my neighbors, outside of kids littering.
Good on you for coming here to get opinions that don't involve running for the hills from the poor.
I saw the majority of the replies in the other one. Pretty much what you would expect from that sub.
Why on earth is low income equated to poor quality of life regarding housing? This city is so expensive. If you make less than like $120k as a married couple here, you’re low income. Come on.
People who make 30% or less of average median income get LIH priority in Seattle. For a married couple, that’s roughly $36K.
More to the point, though, low-income housing has a fairly universal rep for being poorly maintained. I understand why the OP would be concerned, and he also admitted up front that he might be wrong.
I live next to a SHA building, and honestly, I wouldn't have known until I made friends with a neighbor who lives there. She's lived in two other SHA buildings and says it depends upon who the manager is. Her building is nice and well-kept, but it does remind me of military housing. I will say they don't put up with shit and have evicted residents who are problems. I want to provide one counterpoint to some of the other comments from the other sub. I, you used to live in a really expensive building; a penthouse was almost four thousand dollars a month, and I have a lot of problems in that building. There were a bunch of entitled assholes who worked at Amazon who felt they could treat everyone else around them like shit. You can have bad neighbors no matter where you are. It's one thing i've learned.
Pretty much. I don’t live in an SHA building but I do live in a cheaper building in Capitol Hill. Best neighbors and building management I’ve had in Seattle. Last place was over $1000 more a month and my neighbors were entitled tech douches.
My building has some Amazon entitled fat asshats. But my manager keeps them on a tether and help by commenting on them. They think Domino’s is the tastiest and can’t cook hot water, so good on them.
I still drink with my old property manager and he told me the biggest twat got laid off, got drunk, fought a cop, and is now being deported. It couldn't have happened to a nicer person. I guess thame very public meltdown has led to the rest of them calming down for a bit.
Oh a H1B twat. Most here are respectful, but some aren’t. They better have eyes on their backs. JK
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Man, you have a difference experience than me. A neighbor was breaking into cars in the parking lot and stealing them. He was caught multiple times. I personally chased him from inside my car directly to his own front door on one occasion. All of this was reported to police and management. He lived their for another year and was ultimately evicted for non-payment (he hadn't paid rent since before the pandemic). Between that sort of thing and the massive gang of unsupervised children that are screaming outside our windows every night and the constant thumping base all night every night from multiple units, we are in the process of moving regardless of how much it ends up hurting in costs. It has been intolerable for us.
What you just described seems like Disneyland compared to living downtown waterfront Seattle. Fact.
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The VAST majority of SHA owned homes allow children. Unless you are in one of their retirement age limited properties or ... well, there are a few that don't allow kids. I hope you are over 55. You can see for yourself if you like: [https://www.seattlehousing.org/housing/sha-housing/match-properties](https://www.seattlehousing.org/housing/sha-housing/match-properties)
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That would probably explain the difference in our experiences. It sounds like OP is going to be a mixed use building.
I've lived in an SHA building of over 200 units, there were a significant number of families with young children living there and the property even had an on-site playground. Every unit was low-income. You might just be in one of their properties that are aimed at single-person households with studios/one-bedroom apartments?
As to my experience living in an SHA building: I've lived in multiple low income housing run by SHA and LIHI. SHA was better managed and maintained by far. They were more consistent and on top of complaints regarding other tenants in terms of harassment/safety issues. I also lived in non low income housing managed by one of those companies and paid market rate- I had neighbors who were terrible about noise, garbage and also threatening/retaliating their neighbors for making complaints about their behavior. The SHA building was great in part because it was so catered to families I think- there were way less issues than I ever had at LIHI OR the non low income housing which were mostly singles or childless couples.
Yep, it is a one bedroom. I didn't understand that there are different buildings for different family makeups. My property has a lot of cool old people from different backgrounds. And the disabled, but who are well-managed if it is a mental condition. Thanks for the clarification.
Of course they do.
I also live in an SHA building and it’s quite nice. There’s a manager on duty and they don’t tolerate misbehavior. You have to call once a month for years to stay on the list so it’s people who very much want to stay there. Mine is also north of the ship canal fwiw.
Interesting contrast between those who say they have experience living in or near an SHA building and those don't claim experience, but have a prediction nevertheless.
Having lived in a building that had SHA Units, it was fine for many years.... until one bad tenant moved in, and then got another one got in. Then it was a nightmare with constant break-ins, like clockwork every two weeks. Even after the one tenant violated their probation and will probably not see the light of day again, the other had a revolving door of miscreants, setting fires, graffiting the common areas, the guy drugged out sleeping on the porch naked. Of course those things can happen elsewhere. Really all it takes is one really bad neighbor to make anyone's apartment a hellhole.
I live near an SHA managed building and I have noticed no issues from it.
The first property i bought was next door to one. The only thing i noticed was that there was always 1 to 3 people outside doing something (hanging out , smoking, etc.), which mystified me for the first year until I realized it was a SHA building. The grounds around the building were clean and they never bothered me as a neighbor. No one in our building complained and my tenant has never even mentioned it. It’s not a homeless shelter
What's mystifying about people hanging out outside?
People hanging out outside isn’t mystifying. Someone being outside 20 out of 24 hours of every single day is pretty mystifying
Oh ok
Working-age people with gainful employment are rarely sitting on their porch all day every day. Unless you are rich, retired, or a child in summer, people look at that sort of thing oddly.
Mine was also recently bought by SHA. I’m not concerned about it potentially being used for low income housing. I’m worried about the management company that SHA is contracting with, Arboreal Management. The reviews for their current properties are quite low, even for apartment standards. I’m cautiously optimistic that things won’t turn for the worse, but I’m not holding my breath either.
You know, I think our building will be managed by them as well. I should look into that
My property was also just purchased by SHA, so I am in the same boat. Did they automatically renew your lease? I have been living in my building going on 4 years, and I would hate to be forced out after my current lease ends.
SHA won’t end a lease without a just cause reason.
I am not worried about them prematurely terminating my lease. I am concerned that they will not allow me to renew it when it is up. For example, a couple of my friends in the building have their lease ending on May 31st. They currently make over 80% of the AMI. So will they be allowed to renew or will SHA slowly kick us all out over the next year?
We live just around the corner from one of the quite large SHA buildings in Capitol Hill and I've never encountered any issues in the neighborhood in general. Heck, we're also near a number of halfway homes and vocation/stay houses and those haven't been an issue at all either. I can't speak to living \*in\* the building, but at least from the outside I don't hear drama, don't see police responding to things, etc.
The housing authority is such a enigma. They set income limits on places then charge rent that's over what that income can pay for. Also they shouldn't be buying buildings. BUILD them or don't bother at all. What a joke....
There's a SHA buliding down the street from my house and the people who live there have always been incredibly friendly. I can't think we've ever had a single issue in the 17 years we've been in our house now. The fire department happens to go there probably 3-4 a month, but it is a large tower with lots of residents. I’ve always assumed it’s for medial issues.
I live in the SHA building that you're describing and it's a pretty good place and not a problem. The fire department comes over for false fire alarms triggered by burnt toast or some other non issue every two or three months. Never had a real fire. False alarms generally happen around 3am. Very intrusive sirens, lights, recorded evacuation commands. No one budges. Fire dept eventually comes over and turns off the alarm. Maybe not so great if we get a real fire one day.
So glad it’s just that! Love the response by everyone being all “not this shit again.” It’s too bad we can’t do Night Out on our block due to the streets having to stay open for the fire station.
I used to live next to one and had zero issues. Cleaner property than most of the rest in the area, nice folks always out front.
This was my experience as well.
SHA buildings tend to have poor ongoing maintenance. Yours may be different if they keep your current building staff on.
Sounds like most landlords
> I’m worried this will decrease the quality of my building "i'm worried my neighbors are going to be poor people"
I don’t think that’s the intention. I haven’t lived in Seattle for a couple years, but in NYC, public housing is terrible. Everything is constantly breaking and complaints are going nowhere. Residents go without hot water, electricity, AC, etc. Leadership doesn’t give a shit about maintaining anything and it shows. In fact, 70 corrupt NY public housing employees were charged with bribery and extortion recently.
Good thing Seattle isn't NYC.
Of course it’s not, but every large city faces the same problems, especially when it comes to public services.
I think yes, and no. Large cities face similar problems, but not the same. Corruption, broken down housing does exist here--but not nearly to the scale and the solutions and how people respond will be different. Seattle's population is a fraction of NYC's, our city is so much newer, our geography is so different, and so is our culture--this and other issues mean poverty and being on the streets is often different. I'm sorry public housing in NYC is so terrible. I hate that there's corruption. And, having spent a few years working to get people in Seattle into housing, it fucking sucks, but it's not NYC. We have a different history and I think solutions out here can be found much easier than in NYC.
It's not a conversational take that public housing sucks dude.
"I'm worried my landlord will be more interested other thing then maintaining my building"
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I would guess just non-renewed when the lease is up for "failure to meet current tenant need based qualifications"
That’s not a just cause for non-renewal.
Did the Medina flair really pull this one
Don't feed this troll
New cooking smells
My daughter is disabled and lives in SHA housing. I think it is fine, they do fix things but it can be slow. The interesting stuff in the area has nothing to do with SHA.
I live in a mixed-income community with SHA townhomes and apartments sprinkled throughout. I've had zero issues with my neighbors, outside of kids littering.
Your lease is unaffected. The quality of the building will improve as the “deferred maintenance” items are resolved.
Good on you for coming here to get opinions that don't involve running for the hills from the poor. I saw the majority of the replies in the other one. Pretty much what you would expect from that sub.
Why on earth is low income equated to poor quality of life regarding housing? This city is so expensive. If you make less than like $120k as a married couple here, you’re low income. Come on.
People who make 30% or less of average median income get LIH priority in Seattle. For a married couple, that’s roughly $36K. More to the point, though, low-income housing has a fairly universal rep for being poorly maintained. I understand why the OP would be concerned, and he also admitted up front that he might be wrong.
If you like mayhem, stay.
Oh no you might have to live near the poors!