Ballard home littered with needles ‘seems like it’s getting worse’
Jan 23, 2016, 12:58 PM | Updated: 1:12 pm
A woman was pricked with a hypodermic needle in the parking lot of the Northgate shopping mall. (KIRO 7)
(KIRO 7)
Neighbors and police said they are frustrated with squatters bringing piles of drug needles and other paraphernalia to a house off NW 61st Street near the Taco Del Mar.
KIRO 7’s Henry Rosoff reports that even the developer who owns the home said he wants to tear down the troubled house, but the city won’t let him.
“It seems like it’s getting worse, it certainly doesn’t seem like it’s getting better,” said neighbor Elisha Zelina.
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Drug use at the house is obvious. There are needles on and just off the property, Rosoff reports.
Seattle police said they are doing everything they can about the house. A spokesman said officers have been to the house three times in the last 30 days – and have made arrests at the house on previous occasions.
The police are also working with the city department of planning and development to get the developer who bought the home to do more to secure the property. Neighbors said the developer has also not been proactive enough in securing and cleaning up the property.
When reached by phone, the developer said he has gone “above and beyond” what is required by law by boarding up the windows and putting up a fence. He also said he would gladly tear the building down to solve the problem. However, the city will not let him do that until it gives final approval on the apartment building he wants to put up.
