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Since taking office, my administration has been focused on addressing our region?s crisis of affordability by creating more affordable housing in every part of our City - and we?re doing it faster than ever before.
In the past three years, we have invested nearly $1.5 billion with our partners and created 4,000 affordable homes. And earlier this week, we took another important step on our efforts to build more affordable housing in every part of our region.
On Monday, Seattle Housing Authority Director Andrew Lofton and I announced a partnership between the City of Seattle and the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) to transform the Northgate apartments into a diverse, mixed-income community.
 It?s incredibly rare that the City has the opportunity to be a partner in a property acquisition like this. Northgate is on the leading edge of equitable growth for our?City and this new partnership will ensure we will not lose ground on affordable housing in this high opportunity and high displacement community. Over the coming year, the City and SHA will work together while engaging residents to plan for a more dense, connected neighborhood with community-serving spaces.
This new development is just one more piece of a truly transformative plan for our Northgate neighborhood. Just last week, we broke ground on a new bike and pedestrian bridge that will connect neighborhoods on both sides of I-5 to retail, medical, and social services. And, in the next few years, we will see a reimagined Northgate Mall and a world-class NHL practice facility that will usher in a new generation of hockey fans in Seattle.
The Northgate Commons is an exciting new development for the North Seattle community ? and it builds on several key actions that we have taken to increase housing options for low- and middle-income households. Last year, we committed funds from the sale of the Mercer Street properties to support strategic acquisition and visionary investments in housing, community and cultural spaces in locations facing displacement. And just last month, my Affordable Middle-Income Housing Advisory Council delivered a suite of strategies that we can act on to?increase housing options available to?middle-income families?and individuals.
As always, please continue to write me at?[email protected], reach out via?Twitter?and?Facebook, and stay up-to-date on the work we?re doing for the people of Seattle on?my?blog.
 
 This week, Mayor Durkan and King County Executive Dow Constantine unveiled a new Zillow-powered search tool?to help match local nonprofit service providers and their clients experiencing homelessness with owners of affordable vacant rental units. The best part is, its already changing lives?learn about Chauncey Williams?s story here.
Through Zillow's search tool, Housing Connector partner landlords will be able to quickly upload housing inventory, and local non-profit service providers will be able to find housing inventory in real time for tenants who need affordable housing. Housing Connector landlords have adjusted or waived criteria that would normally prevent those most in need from qualifying for the home. Thirty-five landlords throughout Seattle and King County and 42 nonprofit service providers are active on the platform as it launches, with more partners expected to be added. Zillow's search tool does not require or knowingly collect the personal information of tenants and no user information through Housing Connector is sold to third parties.
 A project born of Mayor Durkan's?Innovation Advisory Council and launched in 2018, the new search tool was developed by a team of Zillow employees in close partnership with the Seattle Office of Housing, local nonprofit organization Housing Connector and its network of service providers and property owners. The Innovation Advisory Council ? whose members come from the corporate, academic, and nonprofit sectors ? collaborates with the City of Seattle to use data and technology to solve Seattle's most urgent challenges in the areas of homelessness, affordability, mobility, delivery of essential services, and more.?
 CC Dru! From Flickr.com-NC 2.0
This week, Mayor Durkan joined the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission (SEEC) to reinforce the City of Seattle?s ongoing commitment to protecting the Upper Skagit Watershed and its vital natural resources. A treaty signed by the City of Seattle and British Columbia in 1984 created the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission (SEEC) to manage an endowment fund to preserve the area, pristine wilderness and fish and wildlife habitat in the Upper Skagit Watershed until 2065.
In 2018, without alerting the SEEC and the City of Seattle, the B.C. government began logging in the Donut Hole and surrounding area. The City of Seattle and SEEC wrote letters opposing this proposed activity. In the meantime, SEEC has been working primarily to stop mining and logging activities permanently in the Donut Hole and acquire the mineral rights from Imperial Metals.
The B.C. government recently announced that logging activities in the Donut Hole would be halted indefinitely, however, the decision on the exploratory mining permit is pending.
 This week, Mayor Durkan was invited to speak at the GSBA?s 39th annual Business and Humanitarian Awards Dinner. Recipients of the Business and Humanitarian awards are representative of the diversity of Seattle?s LGBTQ+ community, representing businesses from catering to plumbing, jewelry to accounting , and everything in between. This year was a very special year for the Seattle Mayor?s Office, as Dominique Stephens, a member of the Mayor?s External Relations team, was chosen as the recipient of the Community Leader of the year award. This award is an enormous honor for Dominique, and the entire office is proud of her accomplishments.
You can see all of this year?s winners here.
Seattle knows we need more light rail sooner. It?s why Mayor Durkan has been pushing to forward more quickly on 130th Street Station to save costs, limit future disruption, and get more people access to transit before the scheduled opening of 2031. Mayor Durkan, Councilmember Debora Juarez, and the System Expansion Committee voted this week to amend the adopted budget for the NE 130th Street Infill Station to allow the project final design phase to begin in 2020. The full Sound Transit Board will vote later this month.
 For this week?s edition of the Weekend Read, we encourage you to check out Geekwire?s coverage of the new Zillow Housing Connector tool.
Zillow Group launched a new tool Thursday to help people experiencing homelessness in Seattle connect with affordable housing options. The tool is hosted on Zillow?s website and allows landlords with affordable units and caseworkers seeking housing for their clients to connect in one place.
Local non-profit Housing Connector and other homeless service providers can browse availability across locations, rather than the traditional process of searching property-by-property. Landlords that use Housing Connector have relaxed criteria that can make it difficult for people to secure housing, like a history of evictions or criminal offenses.
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