Thanks to one generous donor, we recently dedicated a new playground at Gale Place, a CHH building with 30 apartments and many families with children. It's one of my favorite places to be - seeing kids from across the globe running around their safe and private home, with broad shouldered site manager Joe Black always maintaining a strong sense of community. Without Gale Place, those families would not be able to live in Seattle, where average rent is $1,796 per month.

"You want cheap rent? Head to SeaTac, which offers the lowest rents at $901 a month followed by Des Moines at $923." -Puget Sound Business Journal, 6/27/14

Last month I said the only affordable apartments being built on Capitol Hill were the 88 at our own 12 Ave Arts. That was an overstatement and I apologize. My friend Scott Shapiro pointed out that he's developing a 32-unit micro apartment building with rents around $800. I think this type of building provides a good option for some people. I also know private developers making use of the city's tax exemption program, which sets aside a good chunk of units to be affordable in an otherwise market-rate building. I applaud these efforts that help shoulder affordability solutions.

But micro units don't house families and the tax exemption program only requires affordability for 12 years. We need to do more if we want to avoid becoming like San Francisco in 10 years, where only wealthy people can afford to live in the city.

Supply side solutions alone cannot meet the need for affordable housing for working families. Chicago has an incentive program to create affordable units in private-market developments. Buildings subject to the Affordable Requirement Ordinance must set aside 10% of residential units as affordable or donate $100,000 per unit to the city's Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund. For projects receiving financial assistance from the city, 20% of the units must be affordable. That's a broad shouldered solution and one that our city could learn from.

Best regards,

Capitol Hill Housing is teaming up with Sarah Bergmann on a new Pollinator Pathway. The first Pollinator Pathway, from Seattle University to the Madrona neighborhood, was created by Bergmann in 2008. The project merges art, design, planning and science, and has received national attention in urban design and ecology circles.

CHH's EcoDistrict director Joel Sisolak is working closely with Bergmann, Seattle University and the University of Washington to begin pre-design and pre-development of a new 1.5 mile Pollinator Pathway for native bees, butterflies and birds, connecting Seattle U with Volunteer Park.

This is an exciting project for the Capitol Hill EcoDistrict, which exists to inspire and equip the neighborhood to be a model for district-scale sustainability.

Learn more about the Pollinator Pathway.