Burien council members stood firm last week against continuing criticism from public officials and homeless advocates who oppose the city's plan to proceed with demolition of the Lora Lake Apartments.

"We're hearing, 'If Burien doesn't keep the Lora Lake Apartments open, that will jeopardize state funding'" for projects in the city, Major Joan McGilton noted at their June 4 meting. "I find this incredible."

The elected officials making those comments "truly don't understand the problem or the scope" of the issue, McGilton said.

Only U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, bothered to inquire about the Burien's plans and the rationale behind them, she continued.

Others, including Gov. Chris Gregoire, state House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, Rep. Shay Schual-Berke, D-Normandy Park, Reps. Eileen Cody and Joe McDermott, D-West Seattle, and King County Councilman Larry Phillips, D-Seattle, simply reacted in their correspondence to news reports on the Lora Lake controversy.

"I cannot tell you how disappointed I am at some of these folks not to have asked Burien," McGilton declared. "I am very, very unhappy."

"This council is being pressured ... to keep the housing open," Deputy Mayor Rose Clark said.

King County Executive Ron Sims has threatened to withhold funds already appropriated for a long-planned transit-oriented development near Town Square if the city-together with the Port of Seattle, which owns the property-closes the complex.

But, Clark observed, the downtown location "is a much more appropriate place than Lora Lake" for affordable housing in Burien.

She added that some critics of city's plan to close Lora Lake because it is close to the third runway at Sea-Tac International Airport, then develop the land for commercial use, live in cities with "a whole lot less affordable housing" than Burien.

That includes "cities on the Eastside that have a lot more discretionary income" to spend on affordable housing than does Burien.

City officials have noted that 82 percent of rental housing in Burien is "affordable" or "low income," compared to a county wide average of 46 percent.

At a June 7 meeting of the King County Council's Law, Justice and Human Services Committee, Councilwoman Julia Patterson, D-SeaTac, asked if anyone would be left homeless when the Lora Lake Apartments close.

Stephen Norman, executive director of the King County Housing Authority, which manages the apartments, said that only 44 of 162 units are still occupied and "occupants of 15 of those units have a replacement home lined up....

"The [housing authority] has pledged that no resident of Lora Lake will be turned out into homelessness," Norman said.

But, he added, "the reduction of 162 units of affordable housing does not support the [county's] policy goal of adding 1,000 additional units of housing per year."

Although no one from Burien was scheduled to address the committee, City Manager Mike Martin explained the city's position at the request of county council members.