Tenants want action after flooding damages Bellingham affordable housing during freeze
A group of low-income Bellingham residents wants action and accountability after several units in their complex were damaged by burst fire sprinklers and flooding during January’s record-freezing temperatures.
Meadow Wood Townhomes is a low-income housing complex in north Bellingham serving families making 80% or less of the area’s median income. It is owned by the Bellingham and Whatcom County Housing Authority and is jointly managed by Indigo Real Estate Services.
Residents told The Herald that the burst and flooding started happening Friday, Jan. 12, and continued through the weekend as temperatures dropped into the single digits across Bellingham.
Fire sprinklers burst, triggering blaring alarms in multiple buildings and causing flooding through several floors. Residents used brooms to sweep the water out of their units and down the stairs in the connected breezeway to prevent further flooding in other units.
“At this point, it was 6 degrees, ice was forming and my feet were freezing to the ground,” Meadow Wood resident and activist Michi Marcher said.
The Bellingham Fire Department was called to shut off the water and alarms while the Meadow Wood maintenance team delivered salt to the impacted units and stairways. But residents told The Bellingham Herald the maintenance team made no effort to help spread the salt or attempt to mitigate the flooding.
Meadow Wood maintenance workers did attempt to winterize by covering exposed outdoor sprinklers with Styrofoam. But that effort wasn’t made until after the temperatures were well below freezing, residents said.
Neither a representative from the Housing Authority nor Indigo Real Estate responded to a request for comment from The Herald.
By the end of the weekend, residents said six of Meadow Woods’ 10 buildings had flooded, including the main office. At least two or three units were completely flooded, causing damage to several tenants’ personal belongings and contributing to potential mold growth in the units.
Residents told The Herald this is not the first time this type of flooding has occurred at Meadow Wood due to dropping temperatures.
“It happens every year, and they are well aware this is a recurring problem,” said Cináed Boyd, another Meadow Wood resident.
Augustine Foster is one of the Meadow Wood residents whose unit was fully flooded. She’s lived at the property for four years with her mom, uncle, stepdad, three siblings and her daughter.
Water poured through Foster’s ceiling for about an hour before it was shut off, destroying her family’s TV along with her daughter’s toys and stroller. Her carpet was also fully soaked through.
Foster said maintenance workers brought in fans to help dry out her unit, but that was the extent of the assistance she received.
“They decided to go ahead and put fans in our unit to make our power bill go up and we had to buy heaters as well,” Foster said.
Foster said neither the Housing Authority nor the property management company has offered to reimburse her for the damaged property or pay for the increased electricity bill. They also have not offered to temporarily relocate Foster’s family to a new unit or pay for a hotel stay while the unit is repaired, Foster said.
“It’s not a good thing that my kid’s stuff is ruined,” Foster said. “That’s not cool at all. And I’m going to have to buy my family a new TV to help them out. They haven’t talked to us at all about anything.”
A week after the flood, the ceiling in her unit was still damaged and wet. Foster said the property management company had not returned to pick up the fans.
While Washington State law does not specifically require a landlord to move a tenant to another unit or pay for a motel stay if a unit is flooded due to pipes bursting, tenants do have the right to ask a landlord to provide it and negotiate costs. Tenants can argue that they don’t have the obligation to pay rent for a unit during a time when they’re not able to live there or get full use of it. If a landlord disagrees, a tenant can document financial burdens and damages caused by the flooding, and sue for compensation in Small Claims Court.
Residents at Meadow Wood have been speaking out publicly for months about what they say has been years of unaddressed habitability issues, disrepair and retaliation from property management. In September of 2023, 37 residents had signed a petition to unionize, outlining several retaliatory behaviors and illegal actions residents claim were committed by the current property manager, including improperly serving eviction notices, towing vehicles without adequate notice and threatening to delay necessary service to units.
Photos previously taken and published by The Herald show damage to staircases, railings and walls. Residents previously told The Herald they were also struggling with damaged flooring, mold, a damaged playground set and fleas in the bark around the complex.
This story was originally published January 22, 2024 at 10:30 AM.
