In the crowded Position Five race, North Seattle, Low Income Housing Institute staffer Mercedes Elizalde stood out with a “Very Good” among a parade of “Good” ratings.
The Muni League’s ratings are based on a candidate’s history of civic engagement and leadership (getting things done) and on a candidate’s knowledge of the issues.

For the first time in a century, Seattle voters will choose their City Council members by district. District 5, which extends north beyond 85th Street, includes Bitter Lake and Northgate. There, eight candidates are vying to represent the area.

Mercedes Elizalde, 29, comes from a background in case management; she has worked as a program director and community volunteer. She counts “equitable access to social services” as one of the top issues facing the community.

Elizalde, an organizer for the Low Income Housing Institute, a classic Seattle social justice/housing affordability non-profit, was the most enthusiastic of the candidates about the recommendations, directly equating additional housing options in single family zones with affordability.

Mercedes Elizalde, 28, is running in the 5th District. She works as the Volunteer Programs Coordinator at the Low Income Housing institute and is co-chair of the Seattle Women’s Commission. Elizalde says she is most passionate about housing and homelessness, calling for “broader rent-stabilization legislation.”

Elizalde, whose impressive resume includes working as a staffer at the Low Income Housing Institute, holding a spot on Seattle’s Women’s Commission, and sitting on the board of the Tenants Union, stoked popular animosity toward developers.

Mercedes Elizalde thinks the race to represent the Seattle City Council’s 5th District will be won or lost on neighborhood doorsteps. Elizalde is the most recent candidate to launch a campaign in the North Seattle district as the council moves to geographic representation this year for seven of its nine seats.

In a press release that described Elizalde as a “social services champion,” Elizalde, a community outreach provider at the Low Income Housing Institute, said she wants to see more social services in the rapidly diversifying (she’s right) North End.

Of the seven newly created city council districts, there’s only one where no current city council member lives: the 5th in North Seattle, including Maple Leaf and Northgate up to the border with Shoreline. And that’s left it wide open for newcomers.
Today, Mercedes Elizalde, who recruits and trains volunteers at the nonprofit Low Income Housing Institute, jumped in the race.

Most passionate: Mercedes Elizalde, a District 5 hopeful, is volunteer program coordinator with the Low Income Housing Institute. She spoke movingly of seeing families have to move out of their homes. “I see the faces of the struggles we face every single day,” she said.

Fifth district candidate Elizalde, a righteous case worker for poor people at the Low-Income Housing Institute, stood out..

Elizalde had by far the most specific response to this question, suggesting festival streets, a new senior center, and greater city investment in the neighborhoods department so that neighborhood groups can more easily seek small grants from the city.