One week into the new mayoral administration, Adrienne Quinn has resigned her position at the head of the City of Seattle's Office of Housing to move east.
Quinn will assume the role of Vice President of Public Policy and Government Relations with Enterprise Community Partners in the Washington D.C. area. Enterprise is a leading financier of low-income housing through tax credits, which corporations use to lessen their tax burden.
Enterprise's financing allows non-profit developers to build and preserve apartments for people who can't pay private landlords' asking prices. It's work very similar to that of the Office of Housing, which administers the $145 million Housing Levy that voters passed in November.
Quinn says her knowledge of Seattle-area housing solutions will be of real use at Enterprise, where she can help other local communities adopt practices that have worked here.
A land-use and real estate attorney at the local law firm Buck & Gordon when she began volunteering, pro bono, to help the non-profit Plymouth Housing Group about 10 years ago, Quinn says she was motivated by personal experience: "When I was growing up housing was a challenge for our family," she says. And those challenges persist: Quinn says her younger brother has been homeless for about 10 years.
Directing the Office of Housing "enabled me to work full time on an issue that before was just part-time, volunteer basis," she says. "I'm thrilled I get the opportunity to do this work on a national level."
At Enterprise, Quinn says she'll interact frequently with staff at the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, shaping policy to ensure poor people get housing that's environmentally efficient and located near mass transit. Former County Executive Ron Sims is now Deputy Secretary of HUD, part of what Quinn calls "a great team" put together by the Obama administration.
"Housing and service providers in Seattle have created best practices," she says. In D.C., "I can come with stories and data and explain the difference that federal dollars are making in people's lives."
According to its web site, the Office of Housing awarded city funding to create or save 275 apartments, saw 51 units open for formerly homeless people and helped a record 82 families purchase their first homes in 2008.
Acknowledging that hers was a political appointment, Quinn says she began "exploratory conversations" for other work after former Mayor Greg Nickels' third-place showing in the Aug. 18 primary. Quinn planned to meet Jan. 13 with one of Mayor Mike McGinn's deputies to discuss possible replacements. Her last day with the city is Feb. 5.