Spokane leader responsible for housing, homeless services resigns

Another cabinet member in Mayor Nadine Woodward’s administration has tendered her resignation in the weeks between the November election and the swearing in of a new mayor.

Kim McCollim, director of the Neighborhoods, Housing and Human Services division – which oversees the city’s homeless initiatives – will work her last day for the city on Jan. 19, according to city spokesman Brian Coddington. McCollim did not immediately respond to a request for an interview, and Coddington declined to immediately provide The Spokesman-Review a copy of her resignation letter.

“The city lost a good one today,” Woodward wrote in response to a request for comment.

“Kim served with a passion, heart, and professionalism the community desperately needs,” Woodward continued. “She gave everything she had to the job and those she worked so hard to help.”

McCollim, a veteran of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was tapped in October 2022 as the director of the city division tasked with addressing housing and homelessness issues.

The division at that time had seen frequent turnover and has become the focus of public scrutiny as City Hall develops policies intended to help those living on the streets find permanent housing. Her predecessor, John Hall, resigned after just three months, leaving a memo warning the city needed to work faster to secure federal assistance for housing while also highlighting acrimony between municipal branches of government.

Hall was only the second permanent head of Neighborhoods, Housing and Human Services, which has only existed as a separate entity since the city bifurcated Neighborhoods and Business Services in 2020.

Hall’s predecessor, Cupid Alexander, worked for the city from November 2020 until his resignation in July 2021.

Alexander, who is Black, accused then-City Administrator Johnnie Perkins of racially discriminating against him. A city-hired investigator found no evidence of racial discrimination against Alexander.

McCollim is only the latest cabinet member who will need to be replaced by incoming Mayor Lisa Brown, who will be sworn in at the start of next year. Police Chief Craig Meidl tendered his resignation on Nov. 16, effective at the end of the year, citing philosophical differences with Brown and a desire to give the new mayor a clean slate in police department leadership.

Perkins resigned in July amid a sexual harassment investigation; parks director Garrett Jones is serving as city administrator on an interim basis.

Brown has also previously indicated she will be replacing Coddington and Chief Financial Officer Tanya Wallace.

In a Thursday afternoon news release, Brown announced she intends to appoint Assistant City Attorney Mike Piccolo as city attorney, retain Jones as interim city administrator and elevate the director of the Office of Civil Rights, Equity and Inclusion, which is held by Jerrall Haynes, to a cabinet-level position.

At a Tuesday news conference, Brown said she intended to announce her other cabinet hires before the end of the year. In an interview Thursday, Brown said she had not been warned of McCollim’s intention to resign.

“I’ve generally appreciated her experience with federal work and with (the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department) specifically,” Brown said.

Amid conversations about creating a regional, multijurisdictional coalition to manage homeless services in Spokane County, which could make some functions of the city division redundant, Brown said she was not sure whether there would be a process to identify a permanent replacement for McCollim.

City Council President Betsy Wilkerson said she was disappointed for the city’s loss of a professional with deep experience, and said that McCollim had come into a division beset by high turnover.

“Outside of public safety and policing, that has been the most difficult department to work in,” Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson added that the City Council has repeatedly been frustrated with the administration’s handling of the Trent Avenue homeless shelter and uncertainty regarding the future of the facilities operations, and that McCollim had borne the brunt of that frustration.

“There’s been so much confusion and lack of information, and people are mad, and rightfully so,” Wilkerson said. “Kim just happened to be the recipient, as head of that department, of all our anger and frustration. And for that I really am sad.”