(Image: Community Roots Housing)
Community Roots Housing — the public development authority born decades ago as Capitol Hill Housing — has named its next leader.
The developer and operator of affordable housing across Capitol Hill and the city has announced Colleen Echohawk as its new Chief Executive Officer. Community Roots called Echohawk “an established champion of Seattle’s Native and under-resourced populations” in its announcement.
Echohawk, then the Chief Seattle Club executive director, mounted an unsuccessful run for mayor in 2021 championing creation of a “Public Safety Department” including “community-based mental health workers and neighborhood liaisons.”
Longtime Community Roots CEO Chris Persons is set to retire at the end of October after leading the organization since 2007.
Rendering of the Constellation Center and its eight-story apartment building now under construction at Broadway and Pine
His guidance has included the most recent efforts from Community Roots around the Hill including a new eight-story apartment building under construction at Broadway and Pine as part of the Constellation Center affordable housing, youth education, skills training, and employment academy project in partnership with YouthCare.
In 2023, Community Roots teamed with GenPride to open Pride Place on Broadway between Pine and Pike creating a new eight-story building providing affordable housing and services for LGBTQIA+ seniors.
Other major recent Community Roots Housing projects here include the organization’s collaboration to create Africatown Plaza in the Central District.
Last winter, CHS marked a decade of the Community Roots 12th Ave Arts development.
Community Roots says Echohawk is joining the authority “during a time of growth” with projects including the Constellation Center underway and construction nearly complete on Copperleaf Northgate, its largest development yet with 232 affordable apartments near the Northgate light rail station. Community Roots previously developed the Station House project which added 110 affordable apartment units above Capitol Hill Station.
The growth has also brought changes in the Community Roots portfolio including a long-term effort to pare away some of its older, smaller properties.
Previous sales have included some of the more expensive to maintain stock held by Community Roots Housing, created in 1976 as Capitol Hill Housing.
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it is still enraging that we decided to build a disney replica of the old building on the corner instead of maximizing housing space. that’s probably 30 units that we decided not to build for that nonsense. absolutely disgusting
What do you mean?
the old building that was at the corner was marked as historic, so the overall development was scaled down to keep the building. meaning the city forced fewer housing units than could have been built here. and then the building was torn down anyway, but we’re rebuilding a disney copy in its place. so we built less housing at a time when we are severely underbuilding housing just so that we could have a building that looks like a previous building that was there.
this is madness.
Me when I lie randomly… (????)
Supported as Stevens Improvement through Chuck as absolute. Chris and then new Roots, as a community donor, hurt my support. Echohawk has now lost it.
Can you expound on that a bit for me please? What was the situations that changed it for better pr worse?