Tenants on the Bell Tower Resident Council are threatening to sue their landlord, the Seattle Housing Authority, over a $3.5 million rehab of the building. It's a rare move for low-income and disabled tenants, who often fear losing their federally subsidized housing.
Bell Tower is a 120-unit publicly owned high-rise in the heart of downtown Seattle's Belltown neighborhood. Since last August, when the housing authority started the work with federal stimulus funds, Ken Jennings says he and his fellow tenants have been held hostage to construction.
"There have been like 40 water shutoffs, multiple electrical shutoffs, and an enormous number of entries [by construction workers] into everybody's units, all day and all week long," says Jennings, chair of the resident council. "That doesn't even get into the drilling noise. It's a lot of disruption."
So the council got a lawyer