Submitted by LASA.
Lakewood, WA – Today a young couple is returning to their two-bedroom apartment at Prairie Oaks, a campus in Lakewood that provides housing and services to vulnerable families. One week ago today, their apartment was the target of a shooting. A fellow tenant shot several rounds of ammunition into their apartment last Friday, March 24. By what we consider a miracle, no one was seriously injured, though a baby in the targeted unit was hit by flying debris and bullet fragments. He is expected to make a full recovery and is back home with his parents. LASA put the family up at a local hotel while cleanup of broken glass and debris occurred.
LASA has long enjoyed a good relationship with our neighbors and is grateful to them for taking tenants into their home and away from the trauma displayed at the complex. We are also appreciative of the quick actions of the Lakewood Police Department for securing the building and letting us know it was safe for tenants to return home. The tenant wielding the weapon was apprehended the evening of the shooting and remains in custody.
A question that has come up frequently in the aftermath of this shooting is whether tenants are screened before being housed at Prairie Oaks. The answer is yes. Furthermore, the tenant who did the shooting had been living there peacefully for two years before this incident.
According to the Executive Director of LASA, Janne Hutchins, “In thirty years of providing services to scores of families, we have never experienced a shooting and we hope to never experience it again. We look at this as an unfortunate event in our community and hope it doesn’t detract from the need for all types of affordable and supportive housing in our area.”
LASA has been offering housing for families experiencing homelessness for the last thirty years. Our housing includes everything from emergency shelter to affordable housing. Prairie Oaks offers Permanent Supportive Housing, which provides affordable housing assistance and voluntary supportive services to chronically homeless families. In the years that we have offered this housing, families have used their time at Prairie Oaks to stabilize their lives. Some to the successes we have seen at Prairie Oaks include:
- Families who have been able to move into their own nonsubsidized apartment.
- Families who have been able to purchase a home of their own.
- Tenants who complete their education and get a livable wage job.
- Children who have been able to stay in the same school for one or more years, improving their educational outcomes.
Well, it’s in the hands of the “justice” system now.
A previous arsonist who set my building on fire in Tacoma, is walking around scot-free after a brief stay at Western State.
The latest arsonist whom we caught, red-handed on surveillance cameras, and his public defender have pled “not guilty”.
He’ll be needing a free house when he is released as well.
Violence, anywhere, is of concern. Violence can happen anywhere, so I cannot fault LASA and Prairie Oaks for the wrongdoings of person or person(s). However, I have grave concerns over the proposal to build on adjacent properties, with subsequent changes to property zoning. I have one such adjacent property.
When the original LASA proposal was made for Prairie Oaks, one promise that was made was to provide on-site management and supervision. Other notable promises included state of the art security measures as well as video surveillance capabilities. Listening to the scanner feeds the night of the shooting, it was obvious this was no longer the case.
The Lakewood Police Department’s supervisor on site in charge of clearing the building, kept asking for management in order to get key to properly secure the scene, doing a room to room search. No one on site had keys to all units. When someone did arrive (obviously was off-site), they either had the wrong keys, no access to the proper keys, and at one point was told that some of the keys may be suffering from low batteries. The LPD supervisor in charge repeatedly asked if there was access to the video system. They we told “no”. Obviously, there were no emergency plans in place.
Now, we expect the same organization to provide the same level of oversite for the Gravelly Lake Commons. Unfortunately, what I see is Lakewood’s version of the Chicago or New York “Projects”.
None of this would even become close to possible if this project and zoning changes were to be planned for parcels in Oakbrook or perhaps around Gravelly Lake itself.
Well tragedy can happen any ware ,any time, consider what took place at the lasa was very unfortunate, But with being said we who live on site and most of us have been there for 3 years or more ,it’s a family building and now they want to build a homeless shower and laundry unit on site ?? I’m all for helping the homeless , I don’t think we should mix it with family units who have children, do to back grounds & safety . Why not make like a day center for homeless to shower & wash and call center in building not ware tenets are living and paying rent in a family community ware live full time .safety should come first .
Thank you .