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Course Description: AEC Daily: Nehemiah Initiative Seattle: Leveraging Black Churches to Stabilize Communities and Address Racial Inequities in Seattle’s Central District
Seattle has ranked among the country’s fastest-growing cities since the mid-1990s, causing gentrification and displacement of vulnerable communities. For example, African Americans accounted for 73 percent of Seattle’s Central District (CD) population in 1970 and have fallen to less than 14 percent today. As a result, Black churches in the CD face difficult decisions about whether to stay or relocate. However, the churches own property and other assets and, working as a network, could mitigate this gentrification and displacement through strategic real estate development. This vision is advanced by the Nehemiah Initiative Seattle, a collaboration focused on developing the significant real estate assets of Black churches to stabilize and benefit the CD’s African American community. Since 2019, the Nehemiah Initiative has been collaborating with the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington through a series of interdisciplinary design studios focused on this vision. This presentation provides a brief history of Seattle’s Central District, an overview of the Nehemiah Initiative, and the mutual benefits of collaboration between the academy and the community.
Explain who Nehemiah Initiative Seattle is and how their collaboration and focus on developing significant real estate assets could mitigate displacement.
Describe how developing Black churches' real estate assets can stabilize and benefit African American communities.
Discuss the history of Seattle's Central District and how collaboration with the academy and community has created benefits.
Explore how to apply this example of collaboration to other real-world applications.