Area Residents Want Neighbor Evicted From Pacific Park Home

A group of Pacific Park residents is trying to get rid of a neighboring family, claiming excessive noise, cars coming and going at all hours, foul language and a Christmas Eve fight have cost them their peace of mind.

“We have lived here for nine years and now, since they moved in, we just don’t feel safe here,” said Craig Van Velzer, one of 18 neighbors working with Safe Streets Now to have the family evicted.

“It would be difficult for anyone to live in this environment,” he said.

Pearlie Rhodes, the neighbor, said she’s not the cause of the problems.

“We have never been welcome in the neighborhood since we moved there,” she said. “Nobody has ever talked to us or said anything to us.”

Rhodes’ house on Valerie Street is owned by the Spokane Housing Authority. The agency served an eviction notice in early March on Rhodes and her family, ordering them to leave by March 31.

However, after meeting with Rhodes, they withdrew the eviction and are working with her to find new housing.

Rhodes said she’s anxious to leave.

“I never wanted this house to begin with,” she said. “This is the only house we could afford to live in and was available.

“These people out here are harassing me,” she said.

Sharon Lord, operations director for Spokane Housing Authority, said families pass a stringent screening process before being approved for subsidized housing.

“They go through crime checks and reference checks before coming into the program,” said Lord. “They have to be very low income.”

Lord said Rhodes is working with a number of agencies and organizations.

“Pearlie is really trying to keep her family together,” said Mary Jo Harvey, executive director of the Spokane Housing Authority.

Pacific Park residents say they ignored problems at Rhodes house for months, waiting for the new family on the block to settle down and become part of the neighborhood.

A group of Pacific Park residents met with Safe Streets trainer Sue Mann in early February. They brought a laundry list of complaints.

“This neighborhood is not the same one I moved into a few years ago,” one neighbor said.

Since the family arrived, more than a year ago, there have been 19 police calls to the block, according to police records. The year before, there was one call.

Rhodes said the neighbors are over reacting, calling police for no reason.

“They call about reckless driving on the street; we don’t even own a car,” she said. “They called in about domestic violence; I was at home with my kids eating dinner.”

Neighbors complained about cars pulling up to the house at all hours of the day and night, staying for a few minutes, then leaving.

Mail and newspapers started disappearing soon after the new family arrived, neighbors said.

Residents say they were shocked as they watched a man visiting the house chase kids down the street, then settle into a wheelchair to take advantage of the STA handicapped van’s door-to-door service.

But the last straw was Christmas Eve when a young man visiting Rhodes and her family went knocking on neighbors’ doors looking for help, saying he’d been stabbed.

Rhodes has an answer for every complaint. She said the cars transport her six children to school, activities and appointments. She has visits from social service agencies and friends.

“I have six or seven different drivers who pick up or drop off my kids, some are here at 7:15 in the morning,” she said.

She said mail is sometimes delivered to her house by mistake because one of her children has the same last name as one of the neighbors. She said she gets her own newspaper and has no reason to take one from anyone else.

She said the man injured in her yard on Christmas Eve was trying to come into the house without her permission. She said he wasn’t stabbed.

“I bit him,” she said.

The housing authority is working with Rhodes to help her move, but could evict her if she refuses. Harvey says she prefers to mediate.

“We don’t want them to become another statistic. We don’t want these children out on the street,” she said. “We have tried to understand the neighbors’ concerns and also work with the family.”

Harvey said Rhodes will be given rent subsidy vouchers, allowing her to pay for housing wherever she wants with the coupons.

“I do want to move out of here,” Rhodes said. “It is very inconvenient for me. The bus is a half-mile away.

“None of my friends will come out here anymore. They are sick and tired of having their license plates taken down by the neighbors,” she said.

There’s one last step for the neighbors, said Sgt. Dean Sprague, neighborhood resource officer. If the family doesn’t move, the neighbors can file a lawsuit against the landlord. Each neighbor can sue in Small Claims Court for $2,500, husband and wives separately.

Neighbors are ready to take the next step but they say money isn’t the issue.

“The real issue is that we just don’t feel safe here anymore,” said Van Velzer.

, DataTimes