Adrienne Quinn, the director of the city’s Office of Housing, has resigned. Quinn was extremely well-liked in the low-income housing community; in December, the memners of the Housing Development Consortium, which represents low-income and nonprofit housing developers, wrote a letter to McGinn expressing their support for Quinn, citing her “tenacious commitment” to fighting homelessness and her effectiveness in managing the $86 million 2002 housing levy.
“Under her leadership, Seattle’s Office of Housing has proven to be one of the most effective in the nation and her expertise is requested by other cities internationally,” the letter said.
It’s unclear whether Quinn was asked to leave (back in December, it was rumored that McGinn didn’t plan to rehire her) or left on her own accord; in a press release, McGinn’s spokesman said Quinn wanted to be closer to her parents on the East Coast.
“We’re very disappointed. We’ll be very sorry to see Adrienne go,” says HDC outreach director Anna Markee. “We want to make sure that McGinn has a thorough process [and does] a national search” for Quinn’s replacement. McGinn’s communications director, Mark Matassa, says he doesn’t know what the process will be for finding Quinn’s replacement, but he called Rumpf’s appointment a “temporary solution.”
Quinn is taking a job at Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit housing developer in Maryland. Deputy housing office director Bill Rumpf will serve as acting director.
