By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
The Central Area Senior Center (CASC) located in the Leschi neighborhood of Seattle has been an ally of the aging since 1968 in its efforts to provide vital services such as social events, meal programs, health and wellness and other services for seniors in our community.
The Center, which sits on a hilltop overlooking Lake Washington, has been engaged with the City of Seattle for sometime to have the property transferred them and is looking to finalize the transfer sooner than later so the center can continue serving the community without the fear of possibly being without a building/home.
In 1972, Washington state voters passed Referendum 29 to support community service agencies like senior centers with $25 million in bonds. During Wes Ulhman’s tenure as Mayor of Seattle, the Mayor and the City Council as well as the property owners and members of the Central Area Senior Center all helped to provide funding for the continued work of CASC.
In 2006, the State Legislature clarified that organization under Referendum 29 were eligible for the transfer of the facility to the organization as long as the organization continued to provide the type of services the facility and funds were provided for.
Between 2006 and today several events took place that helped shape the scenario the center currently finds itself in.
In 2013, The City of Seattle Finance and Administrative Department recommended the city transfer the property to CASC. In 2016, the Office of Housing released its findings in support of the effort to transfer the property. In 2017, the city commissioned an outside report that supported the transfer as well as recommended a timeline on when and how it should be completed. In 2018, Resolution 31856 committed the Executive branch and the Council “to collaborate” on the transference of the property, and in 2020 the Executive even stated that “no other proof of readiness is needed.”
Dian Ferguson, Director of the Central Area Senior Center, believes it is time for the transfer of the property to materialize. According to Ferguson, the benefit of owning the property gives the center the freedom to remain a vital resource to the community as well as continuing to be good stewards to the community. CASC has had plans in the works for expansion for a long time and are looking forward to enacting this expansion but only once the building has been duly transferred over to center.
“We want to develop it but we can’t until we own it,” says Ferguson. “We put a lot of money into a facility we don’t own, but we want to spend our money wisely as good stewards of the community.”
However, Ferguson maintains that Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office has deviated from the original agreement with criteria of their own which includes the addition of low-income housing constructed as a part of the original structure. Yet according to the Office of Housing this idea is not feasible both monetarily or in terms of brick and mortar.
According to the Office of Housing, their “analysis determined that mitigating the steep slope on the east side of the property would make redeveloping the site for affordable housing financially unfeasible. And the benefits of having CASC continue to serve African American seniors in the community, far out weight the benefits of redeveloping.”
According to documented correspondence between the Mayor’s office and CASC, the Central Area Senior Center believes it has over the years met all criteria for the successful transfer of the property rights, yet the Mayor’s office is suggesting more stipulations in order for the transaction to be taken into consideration.
One example that has drawn criticism from the community is that the city of asking CASC to provide 15-years of social services as a form of down payment for the ownership of the building, although the center has been providing social services for more than 50 years.
In addition, the city if requesting that CASC grant them a negative easement that runs with the land and limits future development of the Property outside the footprint of the existing building to an affordable housing project.
The City’s interest is in not receiving any future requests for City financial support of an improvement to the existing building permitted under the negative easement, outside of an existing City grant program. CASC will propose how it is to meet this City interest in the transfer.
“For nearly 50 years, the Central Area Senior Center (CASC) has served the community, and the City is committed to finding a path forward that ensures CASC can continue to grow the programs, services and care to the Central District for decades to come,” according to a statement from the City of Seattle’s Finance and Administrative Services Department.
“It is the City’s goal to see that this critical work continues and expands, while also creating new opportunities if the property should be redeveloped particularly in a part of our City that’s experienced rapid gentrification and displacement of historically Black communities,” the statement continued.
Ferguson has expressed her concern regarding the new criteria and the city’s redevelopment plans and has pushed back for a sense of fairness and responsibility to the original agreement set forth in past negotiations.
“Mayor Durkan had developed some new criteria which we adhered to,” says Ferguson. “Then based on the letter from the Mayor’s office more criteria was implemented after what we already agreed to certain criteria that was established and that’s the reason for the push back.”
“I am confident with public support and continual “in your face”, writing letters, participating in city council meetings and all of those things will continue to push us forward and keep everyone on their toes,” says Ferguson.
According to Ferguson, CASC is doing all they can to bring about a fair and just transaction that will allow the center to continue their work without impediment.
As the negotiations continue scrutiny over responsibilities and financial due diligence has placed some burden on the center’s goals and Ferguson disagrees with this approach.
“My argument is regarding the scrutiny is that we have been financial solvent for the last 51 years as stewards both before my time and all along,” says Ferguson. “For the most part we have done a good job of paying the bills, maintaining the facility and planning for the future.”
Ferguson is hoping to complete this endeavor by the end of 2020 and begin 2121 with a renewed vigor towards the services they provide. They are looking to expand their footprint, by enlarging the facility, bringing in new programs and amenities such as a neighborhood café, expanding their wellness and health apparatus and develop their already successful feeding and social events programs.
The Central Area Senior Center for 51 years has been stewards to our community’s elderly. Their service has been instrumental in providing a place where our senior citizens can socialize and find peace and health in the latter part of life. Supports of CASC say believe that ownership is an important step in their endeavor to remain a vital part of this community.
