New Salishan Documentary: Celebrating 20 Years
The Tacoma Historical Society produced a short documentary honoring the 20th anniversary of New Salishan. Featuring interviews with THA partners, commissioners, and executive directors past and present, the film was first shared with those in attendance at the 14th Annual Destiny Dinner, which took place at the Eastside Community Center on April 2, 2022.
The Destiny Dinner event honored those who made New Salishan possible; Michael Mirra, recently retired Executive Director of Tacoma Housing Authority, was honored with the 2022 Star of Destiny Award for his leadership role in the project.
The film publicly premiered on April 28, and is available to view on the Tacoma Historical Society’s YouTube channel.
The Tacoma Historical Society provided this synopsis of the film:
In 2002, a planned community for affordable housing and homeownership in the Salishan area of the East Side was nothing more than an architect’s rendering on a sheet of paper pinned to a wall at the Tacoma Housing Authority’s office. The challenge for the Housing Authority was how to parlay a $36 million Hope VI federal grant into a $300 million finished product. Then a visionary THA board and the transformative leadership of Executive Director Michael Mirra and his talented staff got to work. By 2007, the remarkable success of Tacoma’s New Salishan Community had made the front page of the New York Times. By 2015, New Salishan had garnered a total of 12 local, regional, and national awards for excellence. It was described as simply the most remarkable achievement of its kind in the nation.