SEATTLE — Community leaders, nonprofits and residents are demanding action to improve safety in Seattle’s Little Saigon — and they’ve presented elected officials with their own 15-point plan to do it.
The neighborhood has been plagued by open-air drug use and sales, overdoses and violent crime, including a stabbing just over a week ago.
On Tuesday, members of the Seattle-International District Rotary Club, the Low Income Housing Institute and former city officials presented the plan to city, county and state leaders.
The plan pushes for more police patrols and temporarily closing hotspot sidewalks and parks.
The recommendations include:
- Establishing a community safety and service office to serve as a home base for outreach workers
- Closing Hoa Mai Park, which has served as a hotspot for drug use and assaults, for 6 months to make improvements and repairs
- Temporarily fencing off portions of sidewalks along 12th Avenue, King Street and Jackson Street to stop drug activities and the sale of stolen goods
- Temporarily moving Metro bus stops away from 12th Ave./Jackson St. and King St./Rainier Ave.
- Cracking down on EBT fraud and the sale of EBT cards for drugs
- Cracking down on the sale of stolen goods by deterring and fining illegal vendors
- Adding six to eight new tiny house villages or shelters for homeless people citywide
- Pushing the state for funding for encampment resolutions to add more shelters, as well as pushing for the passage of state bills that would fund community preservation
- Upping patrols and cleaning efforts on alleys, not just major streets
- Increase police staffing in Little Saigon and emphasizing arrests for illegal behavior
- Providing financial support to small businesses in the area struggling to survive
- Providing funds to nonprofits to purchase long vacant buildings in the area
- Requesting landlords move out or evict drug dealers in their buildings
- Dedicating housing funds to help build the neighborhood into a thriving mixed residential/commercial area
- Urging the owner of the former Viet Wah store site on S. Jackson St. to redevelop the vacant plaza
“Little Saigon cannot suffer another year like this,” said Sharon Lee, Executive Director of the Low Income Housing Institute.
The plan calls for millions of dollars in investments from the City of Seattle, King County and the State of Washington. Where all the money will come from is not specifically detailed.
The City of Seattle has already made significant investments to try to improve safety in Little Saigon, including through the Downtown Activation Team’s police patrols and cleaning efforts and by adding de-escalation and outreach teams.
The City has also implemented its Phố Đẹp (Beautiful Neighborhood) initiative to collaborate with community members to brainstorm interventions to address challenges in the neighborhood.
The initiative was launched in February of this year, and according to its website, has already improved neighborhood cleanup initiatives, improved coordination among social service providers, and convened workgroups to discuss solutions.
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s Chief Public Safety Officer Natalie Walton Anderson said the office was supportive of the 15-point plan, but noted that many of the ideas were encompassed in the work already being done.
“If that’s the case, why are there still so many concerns?” asked KIRO 7’s Madeline Ottilie. “And how could these ideas have a different impact?”
“We are trying to undo some of the harms that are here, and that does take some time, but these initiatives have been moving forward,” Walton Anderson said. “We do have more work to do, but we’ve made a lot of progress.”
Harrell’s office says the work shows — noting that robberies, thefts and 911 calls have dropped, when comparing August of last year to August of this year.
“(That’s) because we stopped calling,” said Anhthu Le with Lam’s Seafood Asian Market, located in the heart of Little Saigon. “What’s the point of calling? Nobody shows up.”
Teizi Mersai, Operations Manager at the market, is cautiously hopeful about the proposal.
“I’ve been here since 2008,” he said. “It’s only gotten worse.”
Mersai says the crime has kept families from bringing their children to the store. He says customers have dropped, leading to a decrease in sales.
“We employ, and I get emotional about it, 90% immigrants,” he said. “The store is owned by immigrants. We’ve done our best to try and stay alive.”
He says there have been too many promises made in the past from elected officials, but “nothing” has happened.
“Follow up six months from now, to see if any one of these 15-point plan have actually been put into policy,” he said. “What I see going on. It just crushes me.”
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