Tenants Fight Eviction -- Seven Families Accuse Manager Of Retaliation

SHORELINE - The Colonial Gardens Apartments, a few blocks north of the Seattle city limits on 15th Avenue Northeast, are built around three landscaped courtyards that tenants say once were the focus of life in the 72-unit complex.

The front door of each apartment opens onto a courtyard. Children once rode tricycles and played with toys there. Adults would sit outside, watch their kids and visit.

That changed last summer, by order of a new manager. Now the courtyards at Colonial Gardens have become the focal point in an ugly landlord-tenant dispute.

`REBELS' GET NOTICES

Several families say they have received eviction notices, ordering them out by the end of the month. While the notices provide no reason, those who received them say it's because they banded together and challenged the new rules governing the courtyards, pets and other matters.

The folks at Colonial Gardens are low-income, but "none of us are on welfare," says Brad Schmilski, one of those ordered to leave. "We all work. Our rents aren't subsidized."

Now, some fear, they may end up in shelters if they are forced out.

PHILLIPS TRIES TO HELP

The affected families - Schmilski says there are seven - have asked their King County Council member, Larry Phillips, for help. Yesterday, Phillips sent a letter to the landlord, urging him to meet with the tenants and "help them to avoid the personal hardship many - including children - will suffer should they be forced to move on such short notice."

Schmilski and his friends also have enlisted the support of the Tenants Union, which is using their plight as a timely reminder that in unincorporated King County - unlike Seattle - landlords aren't required to give a good reason when they order a tenant to move out.

While the tenants at Colonial Gardens have organized protests and trips to the county courthouse to publicize their situation, their landlord, Michael Porosky, has refused interview requests. The complex manager, Greg Collier, also declined comment.

Schmilski and several other tenants facing eviction say the trouble started last summer, when Collier became manager. They say he has ordered small children inside, off the front porches of their parents' apartments, and told older children waiting for rides in the parking lot that they were loitering, violating complex rules.

"We call him the Lawn Nazi," Schmilski says.

Here's what some tenants say has transpired:

-- Last July, Collier posted new rules. Cats, previously allowed to roam freely, must be on a leash if outdoors. A $100, non-refundable deposit would be charged for each pet. Children must play in a grassy area behind the buildings - not in the courtyards. Tenants couldn't congregate on steps, doorways or lawns.

Schmilski said the changes riled many tenants. They can watch their children in the courtyards from their front windows, but the grassy area out back can't be seen from most units.

-- In September, Schmilski complained to the county Environmental Division about possible building code violations at Colonial Gardens. The division investigated, and found wallboard had been removed from behind refrigerators in some units, posing a potential fire hazard. It also said some units lacked smoke detectors, and ordered remedial action.

-- Last fall Schmilski, his wife, Pamela, and others organized a tenants' group to fight for building improvements and against the new rules. In October they wrote to Porosky, asking for a return to previous pet and courtyard policies and a replacement for Collier.

-- In November, Schmilski filed a complaint with the regional office of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), saying he had been discriminated against because he has children - a violation of federal law.

David Hashimoto, HUD's chief of compliance, says that complaint still is under investigation. HUD contacted Porosky and attempted to negotiate a settlement - standard procedure for such complaints, he says.

Schmilski says he was offered another apartment, with a view of the grassy play area behind the buildings, but turned it down because the issue of courtyard access remained unresolved.

-- On April 7, after another run-in with Collier over the courtyards, Schmilski said he called HUD to file a second complaint. "Seventy-two hours later, I get the eviction notice," he says. "As far as I'm concerned, it's a pure case of whistle-blowing."

He suspects HUD told Porosky. "They're supposed to be on our side, not the landlord's," he says.

But Hashimoto said HUD hasn't notified Porosky of the second complaint, because it hasn't been officially accepted. The form Schmilski submitted was not acceptable, he says, but an agency official planned to meet with the tenant today to straighten it out.

Seven other tenants also received notices April 10 to move out by the end of the month, Schmilski says. All were involved in the tenants' group.

Linda Carras has lived at Colonial Gardens 3 1/2 years. A single parent of three children, she's training to become an interpreter for the deaf, hoping for a better life. "To uproot me now just blows all my plans to hell," Carras says.

Her monthly income is just $624, she says. If she's evicted, she'll go to a shelter.

Joe and Ginny Sipe have lived at Colonial Gardens six years. He's unemployed. She works as a clerk/cashier. They have two teenage children. "Now we're out on the street," Ginny says. "I'm just totally sick."

Schmilski says he has heart disease and can't work. He, his wife and their two children have stacked boxes in the front room in case they are forced to move. He says they want to stay in the Shoreline School District, where one child is in a special program, but are pessimistic.

They pay $510 a month for their two-bedroom apartment at Colonial Gardens. "We can't find comparable housing anywhere for less than $700," Schmilski says.