Cascade Party

Seattle Social Housing

Mayor Wilson Purges Social Housing Leadership

January 15, 2026 Seattle Social Housing meeting report.

By Jesse A. James (January 20, 2026)

The January Seattle Social Housing Developer (SSHD) meeting started with the board disputing who the legitimate board members were. Mike Eliason had resigned from the board 90 minutes prior to the planned meeting time.

The city clerk published a new board roster. Bruce Harrell appointee Brian Abeel was chopped off the list. Many on the board pushed to accept the new roster. This was contentious.

Abeel sat at the meeting like a bump on a log, while the rest of the board debated his fate. Abeel was part of the old-school socialist bloc of the board, which included CEO Jiménez. The other board faction are the younger identity politics ideologues. I cover this dynamic in previous posts.

As of this writing, Brian Abeel’s profile was still posted on the SSHD site. It states Abeel is, “a retired finance executive and former Certified Public Accountant with forty years experience in accounting, finance, aerospace, technology, management and board leadership. Previously he served on the boards of BECU (the fourth largest credit union in the USA), Building Changes, Elder and Adult Day Services and Casa Latina.”

Abeel was elected board treasurer after Kay Zimmerman left the position. I cover many SSHD meetings and it was apparent how Zimmerman was really incapable. She was like that deer in the headlights. Her role on the board was filling a “lived experience” position, from people in situations like homelessness.

Abeel has great qualifications. Nevertheless, Mayor Katie Wilson ungraciously removed him from the board to install her pick Josh Nadel.

Things got tense among the board regarding the new roster.

Chair Tom Barnard, Secretary Katie Lebrett and Julie Howe led the charge defending Abeel, claiming the current mayor did not have the authority to strip a member of their seat. Barnard read a legal opinion he obtained from an attorney. This asserted that a replacement for Brian Abeel would have to wait until May 22nd.

The opposing faction, led by Vice Chair Kaileah Baldwin, along with ChrisTiana ObeySumner, claimed otherwise. These two offered rules and legal arguments they claimed supported the legitimacy of the new roster, making a formal motion to defer this issue to a vote. The motion carried in favor of the identity politics faction.

LeBrett then put her foot down, claiming Mayor Wilson’s planted board member still didn’t have legal voting rights. She threatened to leave and was persuaded to stay for the rest of the meeting by Chair Barnard.

The agenda then swiftly moved to The Main Act — ousting and replacement of current CEO Roberto Jiménez.

Chair Barnard stressed the need for an executive session to consider the serious matter, with potential legal consequences. Board members left the teleconference.

Upon the board’s return from the secret meeting, Barnard said he had an employment attorney on standby to go over the possible legal ramifications of terminating the CEO. Things then got tense again.

ObeySumner tried to have LeBrett removed for a comment she made earlier about wanting to "punch bitches" (LeBrett referring to ObeySumner and Baldwin). ObeySumner lead a motion to punish all future threatening behavior in the meeting with immediate removal.

This motion passed with several abstentions. After the general brouhaha subsided, another motion was made to remove CEO Jiménez and immediately replace him.

". . .and Yadda, Yadda Yadda"

The motion lead into public comment. The text-based message board was a mixed bag overall, but leaned on the side of defending Jiménez.

Among the public speakers was Wylie Duffy, the former, and brief chair of the board. She participated in the formal complaint against Jiménez' alleged bad behaivor. Last year, the SSHD board voted to hire a consultant to investigate the allegations. The board voted to spend $64k on this matter. The board have yet to fromally address the final report of the investigation.

At any rate, Duffy read a prepared statement providing a litany of allegations regarding elitism and bigotry by Jiménez. Among the charges, Duffy claimed the CEO complained to her that the hapless Kay Zimmerman recieved public assistance stipends and therefore should not be SSHD treasurer. Duffy also claimed the board had suppresed the findings of the $64k investigation.

The discussion period continued on the motion for removing and immediately replacing the CEO.

Julie Howe spoke, called out what she said were the sneaky tactics of the anti-Jiménez faction; claiming these kinds of political maneuvers were "outside pressure" and "coercion". She asked the board to "pause" before such a big decision.

Vice-Chair Baldwin then spoke, claiming to have examples — but only providing vague situations without specifics. Baldwin complained about Jiménez having poor relationships within the SSHD community. She claimed to have recieved phone calls from Progressive leaders expressing dissatisfaction with the CEO; yet she never bothered to provide any leaders' names. She complained about an unwillingness of the CEO to answer her calls or speak with her outside of the board meetings. Baldwin even broke off one rant of vague allegations, flippantly concluding, "...and yadda, yadda yadda".

Chair Barnard then stood up for the CEO. He said only a select few had issues with Jiménez, and his close colleagues tend to support him. He added, opposition to the CEO has been manufactured and a plot to upend and seize power over the board and its money.

Barnard also stated that Roberto Jiménez is overall, a quality leader and organizer.

The chair’s last point expressed his worry over the legal jeopardy this sudden action could place the board in.

ChrisTiana ObeySumner then faced the assembly, citing her own legal opinion of the ability the SSHD board holds to eliminate its current CEO.

Julie Howe again called out what she considered a fabrication led by two board members of charges against the embattled CEO. Howe directed her charge at Vice-Chair Baldwin, naming her as violating Jimémez' employment rights.

Roberto Jiménez finally got to speak. He stuck up for himself, calling out MLK Labor appointee Karen Estevenin for “sitting on the sidelines”. He claimed those most involved with social housing actually approved of him. Jiménez said, “This is not about defending my job, it's about defending the process.” He urged the board not to make such hasty decisions.

There was a call for the question and CEO Roberto Jimémez was deposed in a 7 to 4 vote.

This was certainly a momentous, if not brutal, occasion. In its aftermath, there was no decorum or comments regarding the dismissal. Instead, Vice-Chair Baldwin, standing over the corpse of Jiménez’ CEO job, swiftly made a motion to install House Our Neighbors head Tiffany McCoy as “interim” CEO. ObeySumner duly seconded.

Moments later, the pro forma motion carried.

The last major development of the night was Secretary Katie LeBrett dramatically announcing her resignation from the board.

The meeting ended.

Meet the New Boss

It's obvious former board secretary Brian Abeel’s dismissal and replacement was engineered by the mayor's office to stack the vote towards deposing the CEO. This political maneuver was part of the messy and treacherous plan to install Wilson administration insider Tiffany McCoy as CEO of SSHD.

House Our Neighbors (HON) issued a press release the next day. They said this about their chief, “There is no better person than Tiffany McCoy to step into the interim CEO role.”

HON then added, “we know that McCoy's skill and integrity will drive a collaborative culture”.

Collaborative culture?🤣 Considering the ugly machinations resulting in axing CEO Jiménez, HON truly think we will believe anything they say. And there are more hijinks.

The statement said, “HON is finalizing our interim plan to adjust to this change in our own leadership, which we will announce next week."

McCoy will be the new boss of the quasi-governmental / quasi-nonprofit entity — accountable to few. All the the tune of $50 million+ a year in tax money.

You better believe it!