Visions For Community Stewardship Across King County
August 2024 - The Multicultural Community Coalition and Puget Sound Sage collaborated to gather stories about the need for communities to be rooted in place and for bold visions for community stewarded, permanently affordable housing, cultural, and farming projects—which would create those roots.The stories center around the impacts of the King County Equitable Development Initiative - a government-wide initiative that would change how King County orients toward solving the displacement crisis by prioritizing equitable development across programs and departments and resourcing historically underinvested communities most at risk for displacement to lead development in their communities.
A King County EDI would prioritize projects in unincorporated King County, and projects like Skyway Coalition’s Brooks Village and White Center CDA’s White Center HUB that when the County actually invests in community-led solutions, we make inroads into the problem of displacement. We highlight three stories from cross the County: Congolese Integration Network, the NW BIPOC Farmland Trust, and the Na’ah Ilahee Fund—to show the great need to support equitable development and root BIPOC communities in place across the county. For every story we’ve documented, there is countless other potential.
Across King County, BIPOC communities are seeding equitable development projects in urban communities and rural communities. They are seeding housing, cultural, community centers, agricultural and conservation projects. The stories we’ve included showcase the vision, determination, and challenges these projects face and how a King County EDI would help them overcome those challenges. With a well funded King County Equitable Development Initiative, their projects can bloom.
To ensure the equitable development of historically underinvested communities threatened by increased displacement pressure, a King County Equitable Development Initiative would:
