SEATTLE — Pierre Desranleau was one of the original Lake City residents to agree to allow a nonprofit to allow domestic violence survivors live in a home in his neighborhood. It was named the Rosa Parks House.
"We never had any issues, they were ideal neighbors and you never would have known it was a nonprofit house," said neighbor Steven Nelson.
Desranleau and Nelson said that all changed when Community House Mental Health Agency took over about four years ago.
"It's a horror, that's all I have to say," said Desranleau.
The website calls the Rosa Parks House a transitional jail diversion home for those with severe and persistent mental illness.
"Social workers come and go during the day, they go home between 5 and 6 and they're left unsupervised after that," said Nelson who went on to say, "The cops and the firetrucks, they come after 6 o'clock."
Neighbors, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, said a man tried to force his way into a woman's home, another peeked through windows of a home at night.
"I personally had a stolen car parked on my front lawn. I confronted the guy, he had a knife in his hand," said Nelson.
Firetrucks and police have been called multiple times a week.
"Needles here, a lot of drug use, it is tolerated here," said Nelson.
Neighbors said a social worker told them the facility is considered unconditional housing which means drugs and alcohol are allowed.
"I don't want this neighborhood to be like that, I want it to be Christmas cookies and trick-or-treating and teaching my son to ride a bike," said Nelson.
On February 4 there was a fire at the home. It's now boarded up as workers fix the damage.
"It doesn't do the residents any service, it doesn't do us any service and you're caretakers and you're not taking care of your people," said Nelson.
Community House Mental Health Agency would not provide a comment to KING 5.
"I've reached out to the organization because we want to prevent these incidents from happening. We don't want to be reactive, and so that's why we've asked for the 24-hour supervision," said Nelson.
In a June 2022 email, agency Executive Director Chris Szala responded to neighbors in an email saying, "There will always be some difficult people and we will continue to get them out as soon as possible." Also that "their target is to have workers around 12 hours per day."
"What's it going to take for them to finally admit responsibility, like this is too far?" said Nelson.
Neighbors said they'll do whatever they can to get the neighborhood they remember back.
"We know we live in a special place and we want to keep it that way," said Desranleau.
Nelson and other neighbors said they believe the incidents are only escalating and fear what's going to happen next. They also want it to be clear that they believe in helping people in a mental health crisis and are only asking for round-the-clock care.