A project to help Seattle follow through.
Seattle has the talent, the economy, and the civic energy to solve the problems in front of us. The question has never been whether Seattle has what it takes. It's whether we organize ourselves to make it happen. Too often, good plans pass and quietly fall behind. The gap between what Seattle promises and what people experience is growing. That's what For Seattle exists to close.
Become a founding member →Seattle approved plans to build hundreds of new homes near future light rail stations. The zoning was in place, funding was lined up, neighborhoods supported the projects. But some have spent over a year stalled in permitting and appeals. As delays stretch on, construction costs climb, financing unravels, and developers walk away.
This is a pattern, not an isolated case. New building permit applications have fallen by two-thirds since 2020, and the 2025 pace has dropped nearly 50% further. More than 16,000 people are experiencing homelessness across King County, up roughly 26% since 2022. Roughly half of renters are paying more than they can afford. And despite years of investment in transit, too many trips to jobs and essential services are still slow, unreliable, or difficult.
Seattle is home to strong organizations doing important work. What's missing is someone stitching the full picture together: tracking outcomes across issues, staying engaged over years, and organizing the sustained civic pressure that turns good policy into real results.
Some of us have run city operations, built housing, or led civic organizations. Others are residents, in nonprofits, tech, the arts, small business, who got tired of watching good plans stall. What we share is the belief that residents who stay engaged and bring their experience to the work can hold this city to a higher standard.
And we know Seattle can do this. This is the city that reconnected downtown to its waterfront after decades of planning, that prepared the Duwamish Valley for future flooding through community-centered infrastructure, that built a public library system among the best in the country. In the late 1960s, Forward Thrust brought residents together to fund parks, open space, and the early foundations of King County METRO. The capacity is there. The consistency isn't. That's what we're here to change.
Grew up in the Central District and later on the Eastside. Product of our local public schools and comes from a family of public servants. Co-founded Landed, which built the largest private down payment assistance program in the country to help educators and healthcare workers buy homes. Got his start in civic organizing on Barack Obama's 2008 campaign. Lives in the CD with his husband Jonny and their 100-pound "lap dog."
Lives in Mount Baker with his wife and three kids. Has spent his career building and fixing health systems, including years at Gates Ventures. As a funder and board member, he has supported organizations like Housing Connector that are delivering innovative, scalable solutions to homelessness. Co-founded education organizations across Africa, including Kepler University. When his kids decided the neighborhood needed a garden, he helped them make it happen.
For Seattle is part of the Abundance Network, a national coalition of civic organizations in cities like San Francisco, Santa Monica, and Burlington, VT working to make government deliver for the people it serves. We're not starting from scratch. We're building on what's working.
National politics, and the Presidential level most of all, keep working against much of what Seattle believes in. We take that seriously. And we think the most useful response is to defend our values by ruthlessly delivering on them, right here at home.
For Seattle is a chance to be for something at a time when there's so much to be against. For hope, progress, and real improvements people can feel. For Seattle being at our best: growing, and doing so affordably and sustainably.
We lean toward what the city can build, not just what's broken. Growth is how we create more of what people need: more homes, more transit, more access. And it only counts if it reaches everyone.
Seattle doesn't lack good ideas. It lacks the sustained focus to make them real. We care whether something actually worked, not whether it sounded good.
Hard problems are hard. We stay in a learning mindset and adjust when we're wrong.
We stay on it. Not for a quarter or an election cycle, but for years.
We share what we find, and we share it in plain language. Not spin, not jargon, not cherry-picked wins. If something isn't working, we say so.
We ask a different question than most civic work: Is any of this actually changing what people experience? Not in theory. In practice. We organize our work around four topics, each answering a question every resident asks. Accountability runs through all of them: whatever the issue, we come back to whether the city and our community follow through on what we promised.
Can I afford to be here? Housing supply, shelter, and relief from the cost burden that stretches everyday life.
Does day-to-day life here work? Safe, usable shared spaces, the right response when someone needs help (a firefighter, an EMT, a social worker, or a police officer, matched to the moment), and easy, reliable ways to get around sustainably.
Is this place alive and worth choosing? Thriving small businesses, cultural and community life, and good jobs that make Seattle a place people want to be.
Does the city and our community deliver on what we promise? We stay on each issue until there is follow through, aiming for the best collective result for our collective dollar.
Seattle's comprehensive plan calls for roughly 6,000 new homes per year. The city has hit that pace recently, but new permit applications have collapsed, down two-thirds since their peak, and without action, today's permit drought becomes tomorrow's housing shortage. So we started with housing, and with a first move the city could make right now.
On June 2, the Housing Opportunities Zoning Amendments (aka HOP) passed City Council unanimously, 9-0, and were signed into law days later. HOP makes it easier to turn underused commercial buildings into homes, removes code barriers blocking mass timber and modular construction, and expands housing capacity on land near jobs, transit, and on publicly and nonprofit-owned parcels. It followed our write-up in the Seattle Times and our community showing up to engage City Council through the spring. Read the story of how HOP passed →
Passing HOP is a milepost, not a finish line. The work now is implementation, and we'll track two things in the open: new permits from builders directly affected by HOP, and new homes that get built as a result. If it's working, we'll say so. If it stalls, we'll say that too. Early signal: HOP is already moving through homebuilder networks, with a Belltown development site now being marketed on the temporary height it unlocked.
Beyond HOP, we've proposed updates to Seattle's version of inclusionary zoning (Mandatory Housing Affordability, or MHA), and we're working to enroll the roughly 46,000 eligible households leaving about $730 a year each on the table in Seattle's Utility Discount Program (UDP).
Organized people, organized ideas, and organized money create durable civic leverage. We help unblock what's stuck and bring researched ideas to the table. We publish what we find, and when elections matter, we engage: supporting leaders who get it done and holding accountable those who don't.
Build on our first win, the Housing Opportunities Zoning Amendments (HOP), and publicly track whether the city is reversing the permit pipeline collapse.
Build a community of several hundred residents who show up consistently, track progress, and hold the city accountable.
Graduate 50 Seattleites through Seattle 101, our flagship civic-education program, including communities most affected by the challenges we're focused on, and connect them to opportunities to help drive progress.
We'll measure impact and expand deliberately. If something isn't working, we'll say so and change course.
Civic work in Seattle can feel like walking into a conversation that's been going on for years in a language you never learned. Part of our job is to change that. We host conversations with policy experts and researchers, but we translate what we hear: what's actually in a bill, why it matters to your neighborhood, what you can do about it. You don't need a policy background to be part of this. You just need to care.
Not every hearing or every meeting. The ones that matter. We track legislation and key decision points across our focus areas, and when organized voices can make a difference, we help members be there, prepared and informed.
The people in this network are your neighbors. Community events, working groups, and shared projects give members a way to connect with each other and put what they know to use. Some members lead on issues they care about. Others plug in where their experience or connections can help. When it's time to make the case, whether at a hearing, in public conversation, or at the ballot box, you're not doing it alone.
If you believe Seattle can build enough housing, make real progress on homelessness, and run a government that delivers in ways people can actually feel, there's a place for you here.
For Seattle is funded by its members and supporters. No single funder directs our policy agenda or political strategy. We'll be transparent about who invests in this work and why.
Founding members are the people building this from the ground up. That means showing up, connecting us to people and ideas, and investing resources to make it sustainable. Every member's role looks a little different. Reach out and let's figure out yours.
Get in touch →Not ready to jump in? No problem. Subscribe and we'll keep you posted as the work moves forward.
Subscribe on Substack →Seattle has everything it needs to remain one of the best cities in the world. The question is whether we organize ourselves to follow through. Come build with us.