By MICHAEL WHITNEY
Published October 18, 2023

Contamination uproots dozens at Everett’s low-barrier apartments

EVERETT — Meth and fentanyl contamination prompted a red-tag on most units of the low-barrier Clare’s Place apartment complex, forcing the relocation of once-homeless tenants into a temporary village that was quickly erected late last week.
City and county crews hustled to build about 30 Pallet shelters on the Clare’s Place property at 6107 Berkshire Drive, which is close to Pecks Drive and Evergreen Way.
MyEverettNews.com broke the story and obtained the health department’s condemnation order. Forty-eight of the 70 units, and the reception area, had contamination.
The four-story building had been open less than three years. Its first residents had arrived in July 2019.
The city was able to buy Pallet shelters so quickly because these happened to be available for sale, city spokeswoman Simone Tarver said.
Catholic Community Services told MyEverettNews it is working to find alternate accommodations for the Clare’s Place residents.
“There is no plan for the Pallet units to stay on the site for longer than 90 days,” Tarver with the city said.
Clare’s Place houses chronically homeless individuals under the low-barrier “Housing First” approach, meaning people with alcohol and drug problems are housed versus being shunned away. The city partnered with Catholic Community Services to establish it in the late 2010s.
The city said in a statement that “the health and safety of our community is our number one priority. We are supporting Clare’s Place and Catholic Community Services’ work to identify alternate accommodations for impacted residents. We strongly support Catholic Community Services’ efforts to provide Clare’s Place residents with safe options and continued access to services. This complex situation is a sign of larger challenges related to the drug epidemic and how we respond to the ongoing behavioral health, shelter and housing crises.”
The city didn’t immediately have a tabulation for how much it cost to obtain and stand up the Pallet village.
Tarver said Monday that this money did not come from the $4 million which the county provided to the city toward siting a homelessness shelter after the Hope Church situation.
The Clare's Place center is named for St. Clare of Assisi.

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