An old story

I saw this happen in the late 80s in Pdx when I was managing apartments in NW. Rents almost doubled overnight when development corporations from Calif. bought neighborhood apartment buildings, many going the condo route. Retired people, who made up a sizable portion of the neighborhood, were forced out. We discard them so easily ... and now I'm in the club.

clipped from seattletimes.nwsource.com Seniors shoved aside by condo conversions By Cara Solomon Times South King County Reporter For a while there, the friends in 5D had a nice rhythm going. Dan Lewis, 71, cooked the meals. Robin Kissel, 61, did the laundry. Jack Mize, 68, paid for the cable. They made the rent on time, every month, for 15 years, using money from Social Security and minimum-wage jobs. No one was living in luxury. But no one was heading into old age alone. Then came the announcement: A developer planned to turn their tired, three-bedroom Federal Way apartment into something better — a $208,000 condominium they could never afford. In the past few years, condo conversions have sent thousands of Puget Sound renters in search of affordable housing. It's not easy for the young and able-bodied, with a regional vacancy rate at 4.3 percent. For senior citizens, the search is that much harder.