Seattle’s Innovation for Unlocking Homeownership
Join Just Communities for a live conversation on how PAD is redefining land development by centering homeowners, preventing displacement, and creating pathways to long-term wealth building.
Overview
Homeownership has long been one of the primary ways families build stability and generational wealth. Yet for many homeowners, especially lower-income and legacy homeowners, the barriers to improving or expanding their property are financial, technical, and structural.
The Partnership for ADU Development (PAD) is a City of Seattle pilot program designed to address those barriers directly.
Through a co-development model using ground leases, PAD enables homeowners to partner with a mission-driven developer to build accessory dwelling units or middle housing on their property.
What You Will Learn
Participants will explore:
- How homeownership-led development can prevent displacement
- How ADUs and middle housing can support wealth building for homeowners
- How co-development and ground lease models work in practice
- What can cities do to remove barriers to equitable development
About the Speaker
Rico Quirindongo, AIA, is the Director of Seattle’s Office of Planning and Community Development, where he leads long-range planning and policy to support equitable growth, housing access, and inclusive land use across the city.
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Meet the Faculty
Tsedey Betru
Tsedey is the Director of Just Communities at the Partnership for Southern Equity. Originally from Ethiopia, Tsedey’s experiences immigrating to the U.S. and growing up in Memphis, TN, have shaped and informed her 20-year career advancing racial equity in community and economic development. She started her career as a community organizer for the National Voting Rights Institute and the 7th St. Community Improvement Initiative in Oakland, CA. After completing her graduate studies in urban policy analysis and nonprofit management, Tsedey worked at PolicyLink and at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy in NYC before becoming the Vice President of Community LIFT in Memphis, TN. More recently, she has moved into economic development and philanthropic advising, working as the Manager of Community Affairs & Strategic Initiatives for Invest Atlanta, as an economic development advisor to Memphis Mayor Wharton, and a philanthropic advisor to the Estee Lauder Charitable Foundation, Waverley Street Foundation, and Gates Foundation. Tsedey currently serves on the City of Atlanta’s Urban Design Commission, the Atlanta BeltLine Public Arts Advisory, and raises funds for the African Diasporic Arts Museum of Atlanta.