No. 16-124908-LD/Bellevue Highland Village Townhomes

The next-most affordable apartments in the area rent for between $1800 and $2000/month, a rent increase greater than 50% that few working families could sustain. The waitlist period for Section 8 rental assistance or other subsidized housing programs runs 2-5 years.

This project would inevitably displace families far outside their neighborhood, or drive them into homelessness, and the hardest hit would be the 85 schoolchildren who currently call the complex home. Allowing the development to proceed will disrupt the education of these students by tearing them from the supportive community of teachers and specialists they have thus far benefited from, and deprive area schools of large sections of their student community. Roughly 90% of the Highland Village tenants are Latino families who speak Spanish at home, adding a troubling racial and cultural layer to the displacement occasioned by this project.

Bellevue has pledged to "welcome the world" by enacting equitable policies and practices and by providing safe and welcoming living environments to all of its diverse communities. The project proposal in question does not live up to these commitments, and moving forward with this plan will be detrimental to the racial justice and equity we all seek to promote.

The displacement will have detrimental environmental effects as well, as 76 families will have a longer and more arduous commute to work, school, and other obligations. The increased fuel usage and air pollution that will result should be factored into the city's analysis of the project.

Finally and most importantly, the permit application in question does not address the human face of the families who will be forced out of their homes and, in all likelihood, forced to leave the city entirely, if this project is allowed to continue. It does not acknowledge the value of the community these long-term residents have built, both within the complex and with the neighborhood. One single mother of four, working four jobs to support her children, says "my neighbors are my eyes while I'm away at work and the safety net for me and my children". Another adds, "this is my community; my family; my home". Many of the residents have lived at Highland Village residents for 10 years or more and have deep and longstanding ties to area schools, churches, businesses, healthcare providers, and other facets of the community.

We call on the City of Bellevue to work to fulfill the Housing Vision of "meeting the housing needs of its diverse populations, strengthening neighborhoods and communities". We remind that the city has a responsibility to protect all of its residents, from highly paid workers to vulnerable families. We stand in solidarity with the families of Highland Village in the fight to remain in their homes and community We ask the city to deny the permit in question; to do everything in its power to stop the redevelopment; and to be bold and creative in working with the families and with community advocates to develop a strategy for the long-term preservation of this vital source of low-income housing.