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Renton’s former Econo Lodge, now “Inn at Lake Washington,” just off Exit 7 in Kennydale.
Note: Updated on 8/21 to include commentary by Mayor Pavone, who reinforced that he has been working to prevent this hotel from becoming a shelter for Burien’s use (new paragraph 4)
Burien City leaders have been in the news as they work to find shelter for residents experiencing homelessness who are camped in their downtown not far from city hall. A letter from King County Regional Homelessness Authority, along with blog sources, refers to discussion of Burien seeking shelter space in Renton for these residents.
In the City of Burien’s most recent public statement on this issue, they said “City personnel have identified several potential sites, including a facility operated by REBLX, a partner agency of KCRHA” Other documents make clear the REBLX site is a hotel in Renton. As a result, I’ve had several Renton residents ask me “are they talking about Renton’s Extended Stay, Clarion Inn, Red Lion, or what?”
The answer is they are discussing the former Econo Lodge, now called the “Inn at Lake Washington”, at Exit 7, in Kennydale. When I did an analysis in April of Renton Hotels being used for King County Homeless shelters, the Econo Lodge was not on the shelter list. At that time, I pointed out that 22 percent of Renton’s hotel rooms had been converted from traveler use to shelter use, while county-wide (including 38 other cities) only 4% of hotel rooms have been converted to shelter use. With the Econo Lodge, Renton’s percentage of converted hotels would reach 29%.
Renton Mayor Armond Pavone has told me that he has made it very clear to Burien that this hotel is not an option for them. He does not know why they would release a statement on August 1st saying they are still considering it, but said he was going to follow up with them. He also shared his frustration that very little of the Renton hotel space used by King County Regional Homelessness Authority to date has been made available for Renton’s homeless residents.
As I showed in my previous article on this topic, Renton is also leading the region in production of permanent, high quality apartments for low-income and no-income residents; if the whole County was constructing low-income housing as fast as Renton is, we would see enough permanent low-income housing during the next year for 15,000 people.
But the rest of the County is not keeping pace with Renton in building affordable housing. And the County’s solution is to take even more of Renton’s hotel rooms, from the city that has given the most already, while keeping 96 % of the rest of the County’s hotel rooms available for visitors and business travelers. With every converted hotel room in Renton, Renton’s government loses lodging and sales tax money, while our businesses and their employees lose money from fewer dining and shopping transactions.
The people experiencing homelessness in Burien need help, and the cities and county should all be working together to assist. But if hotels are needed, it’s only right for some of the other cities to catch up to Renton first, before we take even more of our needed hotel rooms out of commission.
The former Econo Lodge can be seen (red roofs) on the website for REBLX Partners
This letter from King County Regional Homelessness Authority to Burien makes it clear there is a potential Renton hotel, and says they’ve not reached agreement with the owner regarding conditions.
The B-town Blog entry provides a report on a Burien Council Meeting and the letter exchanges, and clarifies that REBLX Partners is the potential Renton provider.
This Aug 1 statement from Burien says Burien is considering the REBLX (Renton Econo Lodge) site
No city has worked harder than Renton to solve regional homelessness. The following photos show actual affordable and subsidized apartments that are in work in Renton currently, or have been completed in the last few years. They are real housing, not hotel rooms. They are part of a steady pipeline of beautiful, permanent apartment units, usually with multiple bedrooms that I and other leaders in Renton have been bringing forward for decades to help prevent homelessness. And of course unlike hotel rooms, these units have real kitchens, reducing the severe fire danger from improvised stoves or hot plates placed in sleeping areas. Renton represents 4.7% of King County. If all of King County were building at our rate, we would be introducing 7500 units county-wide next year, which could house another 15,000 people experiencing homelessness– but the rest of the county is not keeping up with Renton’s pace.
Renton Housing Authority’s Sunset Gardens will provide 76 apartments for homeless veterans, seniors, and others in need
Renton’s Solera project in the highlands includes hundreds of affordable units for families earning 60-80% median income
Renton Housing Authority’s Sunset Court was completed a few years ago and provides subsidized townhomes and apartments for families in need
Last year Renton Housing Authority completed Sunset Oaks Apartments, attractive homes for low income families in Renton Highlands
I agree the rest of King County needs to step up here. What is the best way for a private citizen to help fight heaping more of the burden on Renton?
Thanks for all your experienced-based insight on this!
Thank you for the excellent question. Renton has some leverage to intervene because of agreements we have with the County and other cities regarding local participation in these decisions. We also passed an ordinance in Renton laying out certain requirements for shelters. We don’t have complete control because of a state law that limited the ability of cities to limit conversion of hotels to shelters.
Residents can send their opinions, recommendations and concerns to Renton City Council and Mayor Armondo Pavone. They can be emailed at:
council@rentonwa.gov
apavone@rentonwa.gov.
If the hotel is operated by REBLX, a partner agency of KCRHA” does that mean that no matter what, some city will be using it for homeless? Did our Mayor do this?
If we can’t do anything about it, why can’t it at least be used for the current homeless in Renton then? The Red Lion and Extended Stay only allowed 15% of those hotels to be actual Renton homeless people to be housed there. At least clean up our homeless problem(which of course is already worse from Seattle pushing theirs off on us).
It is a huge burden on our city to have homeless moved here from other cities. The taxpayer cost alone is a burden we should not have to take on for other cities. More Renton citizen’s incomes paying for damages and theft from the majority of them being drug addicts. Crime rates rising even more. We don’t have enough police now, we’ll need even more. More businesses will have broken windows, theft and shoplifting.
Not to mention the complete destruction to the hotels themselves. We now have the huge eyesore of the ruined and abandoned Red Lion sitting downtown. With broken windows visible allowing weather elements as well as bugs and probably critters to take over.
Our Mayor and city council had better do something to stop allowing this to happen in Renton.
And every city council member who approves letting this continue to happen is on the chopping block if you ask me. Ed Prince works for/with the housing authority.
We need someone in city council who will fight for us, not against us. I do hope that will be you.
Thanks Viola for your thorough and thoughtful comment. You raise several important issues. In previous conversations with Mayor Pavone, he told me he had been promised by the County that this hotel would not be used as a homeless shelter, and that he has been pushing back on any efforts to convert it from a hotel to a shelter.
Regarding REBLX Partners, I can’t tell exactly what their business plan is from their website, but I noticed that the King County Regional Homelessness Authority refer to them as a partner in their letter. Specifically they say “Based on what the City Manager reported later in the meeting and subsequent blog reports, it is clear you were referencing a KCRHA partner that owns and operates a hotel in Renton.”
The REBLX website has an artist’s rendering for a second location in Renton, a 7-story building at Logan and Tobin that the website indicates will come online in 2024. They may be targeting market-rate. If the building is instead for shelter or low-income housing use, REBLX should be coordinating closely with Renton’s Equity, Housing, and Human Services Department, as well as Renton Housing Authority. Renton supports and encourages construction of low-income housing, but it needs to be well-planned and coordinated to be successful. The image is fuzzy on the website, and even fuzzier in this comment because of size restrictions, but if you go to their website you can see it below the Renton Econolodge photo. https://www.reblx.partners/
Hi Randy,
I went to the Reblx link you provided. Guess what I learned by clicking on their partners link, they are partners with: “health through housing”, City of Seattle, Mary’s place, to name a few. So clearly it’s all they do.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find out it’s sneaky dirty Dow Constantine’s way to sneak more of this housing into Renton.
We just can’t let Renton become the dumping ground for everyone’s homeless.
That hotel and the new construction needs to be stopped. Are you able to find out more on the new construction to see if my assumption is correct?
Viola
I’ll contact City Hall this week and share what I learn about the proposed new building.
Great!!
I contacted City Hall about this building. It sounds like it may be too early in the pre-proposal stage for them to have much information, but they are looking into it for me.
Hopefully the city can get on top of this one early and end it before they try to start.
City of Burien announces that, after further investigation, it will not move forward with proposed homeless housing solution with REBLX in Renton
https://b-townblog.com/city-of-burien-announces-that-after-further-investigation-homeless-housing-solution-with-reblx-in-renton-has-been-eliminated/
Thanks for your comment Anonymous. I read that blog entry too, from July 30/31, and it sounded like the Renton Hotel was officially ruled out. But then I found an official statement by Burien officials dated the next day, August 1, contradicting the blog report, asserting they are still considering the REBLX hotel.
That’s the statement I included in the post. https://www.burienwa.gov/news_events/city_newsroom/news_announcements/statement_from_city_of_burien_administration
And I think the August 1 status is where it stands to date. Thanks for your interest in digging into this.
If anyone is still not familiar with the Renton former Red Lion failure, I encourage you to please read this article I published titled Chief Rick Marshall’s urgent warnings prior to 2020 hotel fire, “Let’s not confuse luck with fact”
From reading all the documents, it appears the King County Regional Homelessness Authority balked at funding the Econo Lodge proposal due to the owners’ requirement of on-site services and security. So far. Burien is still working hard to find a solution to what’s become a very public & embarrassing problem for their electeds.
Thinking of people living full-time at the Econo Lodge (which I’m familiar with as my Mom stayed there every time she visited), what would they do all day if they aren’t working? There aren’t kitchens in the rooms so what, where & who feeds these people; there isn’t much around except the few businesses at the 44th St. Exit 7; residential neighborhoods surround the motel; no buses stop there currently, Exit 6/30th St is the nearest bus access. The Red Lion fiasco proved that crime & public safety calls increased dramatically in the business areas as well as poor South Renton Neighborhood.
Renton has done plenty to accommodate homeless FROM OUTSIDE RENTON. I appreciate Mayor Pavone holding the line for us. He will need our support, strong vocal support, to continue standing against outside interests causing a loss of quality of life in Renton.
council@rentonwa.gov
apavone@rentonwa.gov.
Emails sent to Mayor and Council.
I strongly oppose the use of yet another Renton property be used by another city and we can’t even get our own homelessness squared away.
I walk the Cedar River Trail daily and for the past 4 mornings I have seen the same person camped out on the brick trail just south of the Wells St bridge.
We have many completed and in the works projects for low income housing in Renton and yet King County (Dow) seems to be all for shoving other cities issues on Renton.
I recently read where we have had 22% of our motel units used for homelessness yet only 12% have been used for the Renton homeless population, only about 4% of the motels in other cities in King County are used for this purpose.
Please do not let this happen once again to our beautiful city.
If only we had a representative from Renton in the King County Homeless Authority that could look out for us all….
No thank you, Burien.