 This week the King County Council authorized an agreement between King County and the nonprofit community-based organization Eastrail Partners for the funding, design, and construction of a 400-footlong trail connection between the 520 Trail Corridor and Eastrail in Bellevue.
At the crossroads of two major regional trails and the doorstep of the new Spring District neighborhood, the Northup Connector will open up all sorts of new transportation possibilities for the Eastside. The agreement allows us to build Eastrail faster by leveraging the skills and expertise of our community partners, along with their $2 million investment in the project. It’s a win-win for trail users, taxpayers, and King County as a whole.
The King County and Eastrail Partners agreement represents a significant step in a year-long effort by me, Eastrail Partners, our local partners, King County Parks, REI Co-op and Meta (formerly Facebook) to complete the Northup Connector. The agreement will now allow Eastrail Partners to put the project out to bid in time for the 2022 construction season. Learn more:
Health through Housing path forward approved
 Everyone deserves a safe, stable place to call home, but our region is struggling with the humanitarian crisis of homelessness. On Tuesday, the King County Council passed the implementation plan for the Health through Housing program, a regional approach to homelessness that will bring up to 1600 people experiencing chronic homelessness off the streets and into permanent supportive housing.
The implementation plan will guide the acquisition and ongoing operations of permanent supportive housing around King County, the effort to reduce racial and ethnic disproportionality among people experiencing homelessness, and the creation of a mobile behavioral health intervention. With its passage, we take another step towards implementing a real, proven strategy that will help people experiencing homelessness get housed and access the services they need to stay housed. I appreciate the regional collaboration that will make it possible for us to care for our neighbors and make our communities better.
Creating a more equitable and sustainable transit system
 When I sponsored legislation in 2018 asking King County Metro Transit to build a more people-centered transportation system, we didn’t know exactly what that would look like. After three years of work with a diverse array of community members and partner jurisdictions, this week the King County Council passed a groundbreaking series of key policy changes.
Comprised of three policy documents—the Strategic Plan for Public Transportation, King County Metro Service Guidelines, and Metro Connects long-range plan—this wide-ranging package shapes how the King County Metro public transit system, one of the largest systems in the United States, charts a path toward a future bus service network that will serve our communities well, by centering equity and sustainability and connecting people to opportunity.
I am excited to put the framework into motion and build toward our future transit vision. Read more about these updates at the Metro Matters Blog:
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Sincerely,
 Claudia Balducci
King County Council
District 6
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