SEATTLE, Wash. — Carol Brown invited KIRO 7 on board the boat that has been her home for three years, a home the city of Seattle was threatening to deep six.
"If someone told you, you couldn't live in your house and said you're out of there," said Brown, "You'd feel nervous."
Seattle has three types of homes on the water. Floating homes which are hooked up to the city sewers and cannot move. Also, houseboats and house barges which can navigate or be navigated around the open waters.
But house barges hadn't been legal for 20 years. So Brown and scores of other live-aboards banded together to change that.
"There were a lot of concerns like were we taking space from recreational vessels?" Brown said. "That we were shading the water and preventing salmon from reaching their habitat."
But longtime owner Lynne Reister says house boats have been a way of life in Seattle for decades. They made that argument to state lawmakers.
"They recognized that they could protect this community," said Reister. "Which the legislature, the city of Seattle, the Department of Ecology all promised to do."
"We're so grateful to them for passing that law," said Reister.
For Carol Brown, it means her dream home can stay afloat.
"There's a lot of people here who are living on fixed incomes," said Brown. "It's a way that people can afford to live on the water and in a cool, kind of community."
There is a caveat.
Only houseboats and barges that are in place by July 1 will get to stay. No new ones will be allowed after that.
The governor is expected to sign the bill into law Wednesday.
KIRO
