Seattle Indian Services Commission Urban Native Community Profile

Seva partnered with SISC to develop a community profile and a housing-needs memo to support their Native Village & Gateway project. The community profile focuses on Seattle’s urban Native community, defined as Native people who reside in urban areas and whose lineage traces to various Tribes and communities across the United States. Seattle’s Native population includes people who are Indigenous to Seattle. Several local Tribes have overlapping traditional homelands that include Seattle. The profile features an analysis of population, income, workforce, and housing data that paints a picture of the current realities of this community and emphasizes the need for culturally grounded housing resources within Seattle. The urban Native community is one that is often overlooked in data profiles, due to issues such as undercounting, racial misclassification, high prevalence of multiracial identity, and gaps in how Native identity is captured in publicly accessible data sources. This profile elevates the visibility of this community and, within existing data constraints and limitations, merges quantitative and qualitative sources to develop an understanding of housing needs and priorities tailored to these cultural communities.

Later sections of the memo address prior studies conducted by SISC and partner agencies, including community surveys and listening sessions, market analyses, and housing needs assessments. These studies provide valuable data inputs to support the project’s mission and cover topics such as urban Native community priorities, affordability needs, desires for housing features, and funding and financing considerations. In addition, case studies from other housing development projects across the region provide insight and inspiration, demonstrating the successful implementation of culturally grounded housing development.