Anti-displacement

After many years of capacity building, fundraising, due diligence, and searching for space, the Duwamish Valley Affordable Housing Coalition (DVAHC) has acquired property! The acquisition consists of two small homes on the southern border of South Park. For a short time, the properties will serve as DVAHC's homebase with the opportunity to share space with other small neighborhood organizations and programs. Longer term, DVAHC hopes to redevelop the site into a community space that will include formal office space for organizations, satellite programing space for neighborhood groups, and a safe third space for young folks and neighbors. DVAHC continues to work on their base-building and education efforts, recently hosting a two-day workshop for youth called “Economics 4 Emancipation”. Looking ahead, DVAHC is partnering with affordable housing developer, Blackfish Capital, to respond to the City’s RFP for housing on Henderson (sited one block north of the new acquisition!). Very exciting times for DVAHC!

Climate Resilience

South Park’s River-adjacent neighbors made it through another King Tide season unscathed! We watched the December flooding throughout the state with great concern and compassion but were so grateful that the Duwamish did not flood. Our Flood Community Advisory Group is turning our attention to the next 7 months of relative calm and making plans. We received funding from the King County Flood Control District (thanks to Council Member Teresa Mosqueda’s advocacy!) to support neighbors with flood insurance as well as to engage the non-profit organization www.buy-in.org. This organization will help us organize flood-impacted community members to consider and discuss long-term defense mechanisms, including individual place-based mitigation steps, elevation, buy-out, and other infrastructural responses. DRCC is also renewing our partnership with the UW EDGE Center to build on last year’s work with the Living With Water project. This new partnership will fund work similar to Buy-In, but with community members that are not immediately at risk of River flooding but who may be as sea level rise continues apace.

Climate Justice

DRCC held its first annual Advocacy Day in Olympia on February 24th! 17 participants from DRCC and the community attended and we met with five legislators to advocate for environmental justice, immigrant justice, Tribal sovereignty, and food security, among many other topics. We are especially grateful for our neighbors and community members who attended, who were courageous and confident throughout the whole day. As the legislative session comes to a close on March 12th, we know that diverse voices can be heard, socially just policies can be passed, and that the work is never done. We will make sure to report out in the April newsletter some of the advocacy wins we accomplished during the legislative session this year!

Clean Air Program

DAISY Project

Over the past few weeks, DRCC has worked with the Washington Department of Ecology to place air sensors in the Duwamish Valley. Last month Ecology successfully placed one at the Duwamish Hub on 14th and Cloverdale! Check out its readings here: https://enviwa.ecology.wa.gov/mobile/

Superfund

Public comment periods coming up on March 9th-April 22nd!

The Jorgensen Forge and South Park Marina sites are the next areas of focus for the Superfund source control cleanup, conducted by the Department of Ecology! Jorgensen Forge will look at areas of contamination and compare different cleanup alternatives, including announcing the Dept. of Ecology’s preferred alternative. South Park Marina is a little behind in the timeline, and just a report on the areas of contamination will be available for comment. Got questions? Disagree with the cleanup choice? Feel free to email alexandra@drcc.org OR submit your own comments by April 22nd!