Good afternoon and welcome, um, Councilmember Twee.

This is our community health and safety council committee meeting on June 3rd, 2026.

Uh, with me this evening, I have Councilmember Weir and Councilmember Vader.

Tonight we have one thing on our agenda, and that's the Everett Housing Authority update.

So, right now I'm going to turn it over, introduced to the executive director, Sarah Smith.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Okay, that's better.

Okay, got it.

Thank you.

Okay, we have a presentation that we um have presented that we can share while we walk through.

So I don't mind.

Okay.

There we go.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you for having us here today.

I am Sarah Smith.

I'm the executive director.

I'll kind of give an overview of what we have planned for our presentation, and then I'll jump right in.

So I'll start with our background and uh the vision for the Baker Heights.

Um, and then I have Erica here with me, who is our director of property management.

She's gonna walk us through what we're doing right now to manage the site.

Um, and then we'll pass it along to Kristen Kane, who is our director of asset management and development.

She's gonna talk us through details of abatement, demolition, and the next steps.

Um before you proceed, I just I want to address that.

Um, I don't want to make any assumptions about how much folks know about the Baker Heights district.

So I'm gonna give some background and forgive me if you already know.

You probably know more than I do.

I am new in this position.

I've been here about six months.

So I do want to address the um leadership instability that the Everett Housing Authority has experienced over the past three years.

Um, I am the fifth executive director in that time frame.

So Ashley Lawmers Johnson resigned in his interim.

John Forth Scythe fell ill, and then um major came and uh resigned, and then Mary came and was an interim until I arrived in November of last year.

I am thrilled to be here.

It's a wonderful agency and an excellent community.

I'm a Pacific Northwest native, so this community is home to me.

Um, though I'm not from Everett, I'm from the South Sound Tacoma.

I've spent time working in Seattle at the Housing Authority there.

I am just, this is my line of work.

I love it here.

I'm I'm committed.

And what I've seen in the last six months gives me excitement and gives me joy.

Although there has been some instability at the housing authority over the past few years.

I can confidently say that we are on solid ground and we are ready for what's next.

Um, the housing authority is supported by a very dedicated and talented team, and I am thrilled to have two of them here with me today to help with this presentation.

So, with that being said, um I you you want to do for okay, thank you.

Appreciate it.

Well, maybe.

Maybe, perhaps.

Thank you.

All right, so a little bit about the background.

Baker Heights, what we're talking about is 43 structures, about 190 units and 12 acres.

It's actually the property line is about 16 acres, um, but the land that is not streets um is is about 12 acres.

Um, it was built in the early 40s for um defense workers.

And then after World War II, it became permanent low-income housing that was owned and operated by the Everett Housing Authority for for decades.

Um, as you can imagine, structures built in the 40s over time.

Um, the systems became aged and they were no longer viable according to HUD standards.

So we went through what's called a Section 18 disposition process for that property, and the structures have been vacant since 2019.