African Community Housing & Development

 Our Mission and Vision for the Future 

Mission: To provide opportunities for African Diaspora immigrant and refugee communities, families, and individuals in King County to attain health and housing stability, economic development, high-quality education, and referrals to legal services.

Vision: An informed African immigrant and refugee community that is engaged in the holistic development of their families, communities, and environment.

 Who is ACHD? 

African Community Housing & Development (ACHD) was established in response to community concern about the changing environment of King County - concerns about displacement, skyrocketing housing costs, substandard living conditions, and lack of economic opportunities for the African Diaspora immigrant and refugee population. Led by visionary women of color, ACHD provides holistic, complete, and culturally responsive support for the community in King County. Our staff and board represent the community we serve, with 80% of staff identifying as BIPOC and 100% of our board and executive leadership identifying as African Diaspora.

In 2023, ACHD served over 10,000 individuals across 75 zip codes in King, Snohomish, and Pierce counties. Our program participants are youth, families, and elders of the African Diaspora immigrant and refugee community. Program participants speak over 28 languages and dialects, and 66% of those we serve are women and children, with the average family size being between 5 and 7. 

In everything we do, ACHD seeks to provide holistic solutions that address the root causes of problems and symptoms. We use a whole-person approach that eliminates barriers to prosperity for everyone we serve. Our programs are rooted in our values: Justice, Innovation, Excellence, Community, and Prosperity. Families in the African Diaspora immigrant and refugee communities face issues of poverty, food and housing insecurity, xenophobia, racism, and significant language barriers. Providing trauma-informed, culturally responsive wraparound services that address many barriers to health, academic and economic achievement, and wellness, ACHD creates solutions to many of our community's issues. ACHD provides housing assistance, eviction prevention services, food and basic needs, advocacy, and referral services, and eliminates barriers to economic opportunity through innovative community-building and problem-solving.

ACHD's solutions come from lived experiences. Our staff can understand the needs of the African Diaspora immigrant and refugee community because we are that community. We speak these languages, and we've lived these stories. We are the experts in fixing these problems precisely because we understand them so well—they are our problems, too.