By Erica C. Barnett
Jon Grant, Mayor Katie Wilson’s chief advisor on homelessness and housing, resigned Wednesday morning after being asked to step down, PubliCola has learned. His last day will be June 1, according to an email he sent this morning to mayoral staff.
In his email, Grant listed a number of early Wilson accomplishments on homelessness, including the City Council’s quick adoption of legislation to accelerate tiny house village-style shelters around the city and work to assess and identify new shelter sites. “With these key policies and work areas accomplished, this is a good time to pivot the work to implementation within the departments, led by [the Human Services Department,” Grant wrote.
This is the second major shakeup in the mayor’s office this month. Two weeks ago, Wilson reassigned her former chief of staff Kate Kreuzer—who ran Grant’s 2017 City Council campaign—to a “special projects” role. Kreuzer and Grant were at the center of a recent conflict with the city council over Wilson’s shelter plan, which began when Wilson’s council liaison asked the sponsor of her final shelter bill, Councilmember Eddie Lin, to pull the legislation at the last minute because the mayor didn’t like some of the council’s amendments.
During a tense late-afternoon meeting with several councilmembers, Grant and Kreuzer reportedly told the council to pull the bill and make the changes. Councilmembers considered this a vast overreach—the council is separately elected and doesn’t answer to the mayor—and the meeting marked a breaking point in relations between Wilson and the council, which the mayor’s office is currently working to repair.
Prior to joining the Wilson administration, Grant was the chief strategy officer at the Low Income Housing Institute, the city’s primary tiny house village developer, which will likely be the chief beneficiary of the mayor’s tiny house-focused shelter strategy.
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Grant has a long history in Seattle’s housing and homelessness community. In 2021, he was fired from his position as program development director at Wellspring Family Services, along with another staffer, over billing errors During Grant’s time as director of the Tenants Union, a group of his employees wrote a letter to the group’s board accusing him of “oppressive and tokenizing treatment” of people of color and of delegating menial and administrative tasks to women of color. He resigned from that position in 2015.
Grant ran for City Council twice, in 2015 and 2017, losing to Tim Burgess and Teresa Mosqueda, respectively. During his campaign against Mosqueda, Grant confronted and took photos of a woman who was canvassing for his opponent and vilified Mosqueda for accepting a campaign contribution from a developer who happened to be one of the only women of color working as a housing developer in Seattle. As we reported at the time, Mosqueda’s supporters accused Grant of taking credit for other people’s work—including a campaign, led by Mosqueda, to pass a statewide minimum wage and sick leave law.
Grant’s allusion to HSD taking over responsibility for homelessness is notable in the context of the potential dissolution of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority after a forensic audit found major issues with the agency’s business and accounting practices. Prior to KCRHA’s formation in late 2019, HSD was responsible for administering all Seattle contracts with homeless service providers, and a post-KCHRA state could include restoring HSD to that role. Even before the audit, Wilson gave HSD authority over her shelter expansion plan, a potential first step toward moving more of the homelessness system back to the city.
In a statement, Wilson’s chief of staff Esther Handy, who replaced Kreuzer, said Grant “chose to resign… after playing a key role advancing the mayor’s highest priority: accelerating the development of new shelter with wraparound services to bring people inside. Jon helped develop and implement the mayor’s Shelter Accelerator executive order, worked to pass three key pieces of legislation, and provided support to the Seattle Social Housing Developer through a key period. We thank him for his work in these critical first months of the new administration, and wish him the best going forward. ”
“a group of his employees wrote a letter to the group’s board accusing him of “oppressive and tokenizing treatment” of people of color and of delegating menial and administrative tasks to women of color.”
So he’s a racist misogynist who probably views POC as monoliths. I’m sure he regularly annoyed and pissed off Hollingsworth, Saka, and Foster with his communication style and demeanor. Also he seems to be some fake progressive white guy who probably feels threatened by Black leaders in the workplace or at the local-level government.
This is a trial by fire, and I think Katie Wilson’s making the most of it, making fast changes when needed and hopefully being sheltered from the naysayers. I want her to shift on surveillance, but I’m a fan.
She fired solid leaders of important departments who happened to be from the previous administration without having a replacement in mind. Six months into her administration, she still hasn’t filled the positions. I hardly call that leadership.
Well, the fact that Mayor Wilson is willing to act quickly and decisively, and to pivot when she admits an error, is a very good sign. Now, if she can fill more roles with people who have actual experience governing, and not just agitating, she can become a very good mayor.
Well, that is good that folks get second, third, even fourth chances to prove that they are not the problem, but
the situation, people, place, etc. Jon has his merits, but people skills and compromise are not his MO.
Kreuzer and Grant were always in the positions where they had to attack to get things done. Always in a position of scarcity and of want. Now in positions of power and of plenty, they could not transition to compromise and to harmony among peers to get what they want.
Not fatal to Mayor Wilson, but a great and painful lesson in leadership and integrity. A “no” today could mean a “yes” tomorrow. Good luck, Mayor Wilson. I hope you succeed. I really do.
Who in Seattle would ever think Jon Grant would be a good fit on the Mayor’s staff? It’s not his politics, it’s the fact that he gets into public pissing matches with anyone (everyone?) who dares to disagree with him.
Mayor Katie needs to find people she agrees with politically who have exceptional “people” skills to get things done. Running Seattle is absolutely nothing like running the Transit Riders Union.
She’ll figure it out. She’s whip smart and has a few people around her to help navigate.
“She’s whip smart”
LOL
LMAO even
I find it laughable that some claim Grant has housing experience. Dude has never actually worked inside the industry, only as an agitator outside it. I was floored when LIHI hired him. He’s a knucklehead.