My Work

I've realized after talking with friends and family, a lot of people are having a hard time figuring out where I work. So guess what this blog is about! OH BOY! :)
Here's the basics: I work for the Archdiocesan Housing Authority. AHA has over 150 properties in WA. They provide permanent and temporary housing for families or individuals, and they have many "themed" properties. Our newest one is called Ozanom. It's being built where our old parking lot used to be (we will get our parking back once it's completed). Oz will serve housing for homeless, practicing alcoholic men.

Anyways, my building is Chancery Place Apartments. We currently house (permanent) low income seniors, 62 of age or older, and persons with a disability who meet 4 features of an unit. Non-PC, if you're younger than 62, you need to be in a wheelchair or use some other machine to move around (walker, scooter, etc). I had said "currently house" earlier because HUD (Housing for Urban Development) is trying to change the way 202/8 (us) are viewed. We will in the super near future be offering housing to anyone who has a disability. There's a lot of mixed feelings about this, so I'll just continue on with the purdy pictures!

Here is the front of the building, and also looking up at it from the street. It's 15 stories tall, 13 floors are residential and the other 2 floors are occupied by the Archdiocesan Church.

Here is the lobby and where the Ol' Betties sit and gossip. It's a prime spot to sit; it's directly in front of the elevators and across from the front doors and mailboxes! Usually these chairs are filled with ladies up to no good.

Here is the other view of the lobby (it's in an "L" shape). The closed office is Katy's and the Front Desk Staff (we have night and weekend coverage here. The building is secure so guests are to check in).

Melanie and I share an office on the 1st floor. It used to be an old unit, but was changed into the office when they realized 2.5 people (Alvaro, our ONE maintenance man has a desk in here) can't share a 8x10 room (Katy's office). Melanie's "office" is the living room of an unit. All the units have one bedroom, bathroom, living room and full sized kitchen. The 1st floor also houses the Family Room, Laundry, Library and Computer Room. This is Melanie's desk; it is actually "clean" for her..

Here is my office. It's the bedroom of an unit. Melanie is working on getting me out in the living room with her, and use this space for a conference area. Thankfully, I still reside in it. Notice how somewhat organized it is compared to someone else's desk...hmmm...

This is the Family Room. This is where we have our House Meetings and other social gatherings. We also have tv with cable, pop machine and a piano for everyone to enjoy.

This isn't really of importance, but its the cause of just one of my many headaches with work. All the hallways have been carpeted, and somewhere down the line they decided to replace all the carpet with this nasty green marmoleum. It's ugly (the tenants picked out the color...), HIGHLY expensive and costly to upkeep, and makes the building look like a nursing home. We are slowly installing it. They bought this a few years ago, and we have only installed three floors...it's that expensive to install. Someone wasn't thinking correctly when they ordered it...but whatever. :)

Onto the roof!

We try and get away to the roof as much as we can (on non-windy days). Here is the view of stadiums (you may have to strain to see them in this pic). Notice the big mammoth building off to the left. That will be senior housing for multi-millionaires. It is HUGE!

Here is the west side view. The building straight in front is pretty new still. Imagine being 10 feet lower, and you can image how awesome the views are for some of the tenants. There is actually one tenant on the 13th floor (Catholics are not superstitious, so yes, we do have a 13th floor) who has black-out curtains and never opens them. What a waste of a view!

Here is the north side. You can hardly see the Space Needle just shy of middle, on the left.

Here's the east side. Capital Hill is off to the left. Swedish Hospital is pictured to the right (anything that is beige colored is probably Swedish).

This is the south-east view. When the Blue Angels were flying, we had a great view from here.

Finally the to the south. Those ginormous steeples belong to the St. James Cathedral. I realize now that I should have included a picture of the front of the Cathedral. It's absolutely beautiful. If any of you get a change to take a tour of it, I highly suggest it. Also, Harborview is off past the Cathedral. We work on First Hill, but it's often called Pill Hill since we have Harborview, Swedish, Virgina Mason, and Cabrini hospitals surrounding us.

I snapped a quick on of the Ozanom. It's the beige building towards the top of the picture. Hopefully it'll be completed in the Spring of this year!

Almost forgot, here is the Sun Deck, from the rooftop. It's nothing special (especially from this pic!). There are flower pots that the tenants fight over, a couple table and chairs, and plenty of room to roam around.

I hope I helped clear up some of the mystery around my work. I guess I never said what I do. I'm the Business Manager. Since this is a HUD building, all the tenants must get re-certified early in order to live here. Rent is only 30% of their income (if they have any), so it must get verified yearly. Since everyone is either a senior or disabled, their medical bills can also help reduce their rent, so that is also calculated and verified yearly. We do have some tenants who don't have any income (no Social Security, pensions, wages, etc) so they actually receive a check from AHA to live there. We pay the water, sewage and garbage, and also take off $29 from their rent so the tenants who don't pay rent due to no income, receive a check to help cover their electricity bills. Pretty cool to get paid to live somewhere!

Well, since it's now 3:30am, I should probably go to bed. Gus and Lucas left for the ocean today, and I apparently can't sleep. My night/day to get extra sleep, and I can't. Perfect!