Community Safety

The Bellingham Housing Authority's Commitment to Crime Prevention

By partnering with local public safety departments and the residents of our neighborhoods our goal is that our residents feel safe about where they live. We encourage our residents to practice safety in their everyday activities and become involved in the many programs available to minimizing crime. Our commitment to community safety involves using a comprehensive approach in combating crime.

A key component of our safe community approach, involves daily visits by various members of the Housing Authority staff. Our Resident Services Manager’s schedule includes weekly visits to all of our communities. During these visits, the safety considerations for our properties are continually assessed. As a result, we have been effective in implementing a wide variety of safety measures. Other members of our staff to include: members of the administrative staff, leasing, development, maintenance and grounds, can regularly be seen at our communities. We also work closely with law enforcement in our communities. As an example, a drug elimination detective from the Bellingham Police Department is a member of our staff. He visits our properties daily and works directly with residents in taking steps to prevent and minimize drug use on our properties. As a result, we have been successfully in confronting situations involving crime and structuring safety measures to minimize such activity.

Each high-rise and apartment community has an on-site assistant manager to assist residents and promote a safe environment by reporting suspicious activity. They work closely with our Resident Services Manager and Drug Elimination Detective. Our on-site assistant managers are always available to our residents if they have any concerns or need assistance. We have also taken steps to incorporate extra night lighting and security cameras to promote an added dimension to safety. Many resident’s have responded to these measures by saying they have “the sense of not being alone or isolated. Security cameras have proven to be especially comforting to our residents late at night or when walking down a secluded hallway.

Your Housing Authority is committed to the Crime Free Multi-Housing Program. This program assists property owners and managers in developing effective partnerships in neighborhood environments. It is intended to foster a safe, healthy, family-oriented environment free of illegal activity. It involves manager/landlord training, safety assessments and resident/block watch training. Members of the Housing Authority staff have attended this training and continue to implement the recommendations and principles of the program. Our participation in the local Neighborhood/Apartment Block Watch Program offers all our citizens the opportunity to be involved in making their community safe. As an extension of their year long activities, many of our communities participate in the annual national community safety event National Night Out. Lastly, one of our newest safety initiatives has been the installation of a state of the art electronic entry system in many of our apartment/high-rise communities. This key pay safety entry feature offers a tremendous sense of security to residents by maximizing access and control at each building. It replaces front door key entry with a centrally controlled key pad entry system. If a resident losses their key pad, it can be replace and the lost key pad is deactivated so that it can no longer be used to gain access.