Stella Chao loves walking around Sunset Hill, where she sees other homeowners working in their yards and interactions with her neighbors are a welcome thing.

Now that Chao has been hired as the new director of the City of Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods, she is busy establishing relationships with all the different communities of the Emerald City.

She takes over a department with a staff of 90 people.

The programs include the Neighborhood Matching Fund, Mayor's Citizen Service Bureau, Office for Education, Historic Preservation, Neighborhood Planning, the P-Patch Community Gardens (with 53 sites), along with the Race Relations and Social Justice.

Chao has begun introducing herself to the communities she is representing, starting with a Clean and Green event on Capitol Hill where residents picked up litter and planted trees.

"I have also joined the Mayor's walking tour in West Seattle. This last weekend I joined all the district councils in a workshop here at city hall," said Chao.

"Lots of weekends and lots of evenings (meetings) is part of this job," said Chao.

With 13 neighborhood district councils and 13 Neighborhood Service Centers in Seattle, there's plenty to keep Chao busy.

In the near future, Chao plans to attend a Ballard District Council meeting. She is impressed with the community groups in Ballard.

"The community activism that Ballard has is excellent. I would like to see a lot of communities do really good stuff," said Chao.

"What I would like to see and what the Mayor (Greg Nickels) would like to see is that we engage a broader population in civic activities. We have such a rich tapestry of cultures and ethnic groups. I'd like to hear from all of them, so would the city," Chao said.

If any groups are excluded, it means the city is not increasing their feeling of ownership for their neighborhoods. "If everybody does not own their neighborhood, then we will never reach our potential," Chao said.

Community groups have enjoyed the success of the Neighborhood Matching Fund, which provides money for pocket parks, tree planting and many activities and projects.

Chao says the grants are very popular and are serving as a model that other cities are copying.

"It will continue to be a model that we structure future initiatives on," said Chao.

She wants the funds to connect issues like race and social justice, community building with climate and education. The Department of Neighborhoods is where all of those things come together and the matching funds are a great place for us to model that," said Chao.

Some housing activists in the city are concerned about the trend towards turning apartment buildings into condos and the subsequent loss of rental housing, leaving residents scrambling to find affordable places to live.

"Gentrification is a big issue. I believe that for a healthy sustainable community we need to have a mix of incomes and ethnic groups. When I see an unbalance in any area, I start to wonder and start to worry," said Chao.

"I think from an environmental standpoint, it's important to support density. What I see happening in a lot of places is we're not building the infrastructures along with the housing to ensure the communities are stable and healthy," said Chao.

Much of the housing stock is going towards one or two bedroom condos with two adults and no kids. "Unless you have something that draws in families, you don't have sustainability," said Chao.

As far as the neighborhood service centers are concerned, one of their main functions, along with paying light bills, is passports.

"Passports are a big thing right now. The law is changing at the border. We are looking at the needs of the community around passports. I've already had discussions about working out some numbers to increase capacity for passports," said Chao.

She feels there are a lot of things neighborhood service centers can do, but they are underutilized.

Chao is exploring how the centers can expand their connection to the communities and to other city resources to create better access.

Chao was born and raised in Queens, N.Y. Her parents were mentally ill and she was sometimes homeless from age seven to 16.

She learned how to survive on the streets and avoid trouble, finding temporary homes with friends, teachers and the YMCA.

Chao studied various sciences at the State University of New York and moved to Seattle in 1979 to work in a blood vessel biology lab at the University of Washington.

She found an apartment to rent in Ballard because it provided her easy access to her job at the University of Washington.

Now she and her husband Michael Smyser own a home in Loyal Heights that they share with three cats.

Turning to social work, Chao left the university to become executive director of the International District Housing Alliance before applying for the Department of Neighborhoods position.

She also applied for a vacated position on the Seattle City Council that was eventually filled by Sally Clark.

Dean Wong may be reached at 783.1244 or dino@robinsonnews.com