The razing of the barged-from-Victoria building was temporarily halted last week as citizens voiced concerns about the City’s compliance with environmental concerns, specifically asbestos abatement. The Cherry Street Building, previously called the Carmel Building, was originally purchased in 2017 with housing provider Homeward Bound receiving a $250,000 city loan to barge the 70-year-old building from its previous home in Victoria, B.C. to Port Townsend.

“We’ve addressed concerns which might be related and I and a number of staff did a site visit. We had required the contractor to do dust control which they we not doing, so we stopped work until that can be remedied,” City Manager John Mauro told The Leader.

Mauro said demolition could cost as much as $50,000 but that $300,000 of the original $834,000 affordable housing bond is yet unspent. It’s removal marks the end of an unsuccessful housing project, at which several organizations had failed.

“There was an attempt for Bayside Services to salvage the project and they spent a couple years on it, but over the past few years, housing material costs were through the roof. They just couldn’t make it pencil,” he said.

The City put out a Request For Proposals and talked to housing providers but none came back with a solution. The building, he said, was more of a shell than a home. It was without insulation and contrary to recent social media reports, there was also    no asbestos.

“We had it abated. We know there is no longer asbestos in the building - it’s not true but it’s hard to untangle ourselves from the community’s imagination.”

Regardless, he said, the project was financially unviable.

“It was an albatross from the start of things and making it more challenging, a nonprofit that didn’t have the capacity. It was a really creative idea but sometimes creative ideas don’t work. Is the housing crisis big enough that we should take some risk? Yeah.” Mauro said the City continues its work on affordable housing.

“We’re trying a lot of stuff and some of it may not connect. We’re making some pretty gutsy policy decisions.”