Vashon HouseHold’s executive director, Jason Johnson, will depart from his role on December 1.

Johnson plans to move back home to Colorado to be closer to his family and begin a new role as director of the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, said Anne Atwell, board chair of the organization.

In a press release announcing the resignation, Atwell offered high praise to Johnson, saying that since his hire in 2022, he had greatly increased Vashon HouseHold’s (VHH) visibility and effectiveness in the community and beyond.

“His gracious, compassionate, and transparent leadership has made an indelible mark on the organization,” she said.

Atwell also announced an immediate transition plan, saying that VHH board member Kari Dohn Decker has been named as interim executive director. Decker will shadow Johnson throughout the remainder of his tenure at VHH, she said, to gain a broader knowledge of all of the operations of the organization.

The VHH board will lead the search to hire a new executive director for the organization.

Decker is well-qualified for her interim role, Atwell said, with a 30-plus year career as an attorney, senior leader, advisor and manager who has worked in the intersection of business, policy, law, nonprofits and social impact.

Most recently, Decker managed corporate responsibility for JPMorgan Chase in the western United States, with her areas of focus including affordable housing, sustainability, entrepreneurship, women’s empowerment, disaster relief and employee volunteerism and engagement. Earlier in her career, she also served as a senior appointee in both the Clinton-Gore administration as well as in the administration of California Governor Gray Davis.

“We feel so fortunate to have Kari at the helm — which will give us time to find the right fit for a permanent leader,” Atwell said.

In a joint interview last week, Johnson, Decker and Atwell spoke at length about the transition, saying VHH was now well-positioned to pursue its goal of doubling affordable housing on the island by 2035.

Decker said that she was excited to take on her role as interim director — and that her commitment to creating and sustaining affordable housing was central to her decision to do so.

“I care passionately about this issue for the island and our partners, especially our residents and our team,” she said.

Johnson, in the interview, reflected on the challenges and rewards of his time on Vashon.

He said that in his previous job, as the director of the City of Seattle’s Human Service Department, he had become aware of VHH’s efforts to provide affordable, first-time homeownership opportunities for those who would otherwise be unable to buy in a traditional market.

VHH’s three home ownership properties — now including 38 homes built on land owned by a community land trust — was an innovative model that Johnson was eager to champion.

“I jumped at the chance to be a part of it,” he said.

He said that his most important task, as the organization’s first full-time director, has been to increase the community’s awareness and support of the organization’s work and properties — which now includes rentals of 88 affordable apartments on five separate properties.

“The board wanted to make sure that I was helping them start a fundraising effort that included individual donors, business sponsors and family foundations,” he said. “My charge, right out of the gate, was to engage with the community, let them know who we are and why we’re so critical.”

Johnson’s efforts in this regard have paid off, according to Atwell and Decker, who said his work had been key in tripling donations to the organization.

Atwell also praised Johnson for hosting Vashon’s first community housing forum — an event held last year at Vashon Center for the Arts, with a panel that included State Rep. Emily Alvarado, Sen. Joe Nguyen, Vashon Shelter America President Chris Bric, Seattle Times Reporter Heidi Groover, and Johnson.

Another significant accomplishment, she said, came last year when Johnson rallied a group of community members to purchase the Islander Apartments, a 12-unit rental property on 96th Place S.W., near Vashon’s town core.

“When that opportunity came up, I had established relationships for the organization so that I knew exactly who to ask,” Johnson said. “…. And I just don’t know if, as an organization, we would have been in a position to make that ask had we not spent the year doing some really intentional outreach and relationship development.”

Under Johnson’s leadership, VHH has also successfully launched an innovative Home Share Program, which now boasts 25 placements, facilitating rental agreements between islanders with extra room in their houses and islanders who need affordable housing.

Many of the matches, Johnson said, have been between island seniors on fixed incomes who need some help in keeping up their properties, and younger renters who are part of Vashon’s workforce.

These matches, he said, have “created this cool intergenerational match or connection,” he said, adding that he believes the program will continue to grow in the coming year.

Construction projects have also consumed the attention of Johnson and the board.

During his tenure, VHH rehabilitated its 50-year-old Charter House Apartments, a nine-unit apartment complex reserved for low-income seniors and people with disabilities.

And now, VHH is at last nearing the completion of construction of Island Center Homes — a $12 million project that will add 40 units of affordable housing to serve income-qualifying seniors, people who have experienced homelessness, people using the behavioral health system, adults with developmental disabilities, and veterans.

The project, located at SW 188th Street and Vashon Highway, broke ground in winter 2022, with construction now on track to be complete at the end of November. An open house for the community will be held in December, Johnson said, and after that, the organization will carefully begin the work of filling the units in the project.

It will be a process that he, Atwell and Decker all said they expected to take several months.

“It’s a vulnerable population that we’ll be serving,” said Johnson. “It’s folks living on less than $32,000 a year. Those individuals are veterans. They’re people who have experienced homelessness, they’re seniors, they’re people who are engaged in the behavioral health system, and they’re people living with disabilities. So it’s … not a population that we can just say, ‘Okay, here’s your keys, move in,’ right? It really will take several months to sort of get people oriented to the program and make sure they’re a good fit.”

Decker added that she and VHH will work with Vashon Youth & Family Services and other partners in this effort so that each of the residents have a full plan for success.

The affordable housing project, in which residents will have their own apartments but also share some common space with other residents, will be the first of its kind in King County. A lot of eyes, both in the county and on Vashon, will be watching as the project finally launches, Atwell said.

“It’s a very big priority for the Vashon HouseHold board to do this right,” she said.

Looking forward, Johnson, Atwell and Decker said that Vashon HouseHold will continue its work to eliminate key barriers that stand in the way of developing more affordable housing on Vashon.

The first such barrier, Johnson said, is cash.

“When a property comes up, it’s on us to work with our public funders and with the community to get the money needed to pay a down payment, to start making loan payments, to pay taxes, all that stuff,” he said. “So money is always a hurdle.”

Zoning, he said is another hurdle, with very limited multi-family zoning in Vashon town. He said he was supportive of changes proposed in the King County Comprehensive Plan that “would open up more opportunity for an organization like ours.”

Water, Johnson said, is the third significant barrier to developing more affordable housing on Vashon.

“Right now, we’ve been looking at a property that is 16 acres, but only has three water shares,” he said. “So there is plenty of land, plenty of opportunity for us to think about and dream up what could be on that parcel, but not the water to do it.”

During his tenure, he said, he has strongly advocated that affordable housing be prioritized when water shares become available.

“There are hundreds of water shares that have been purchased that are not used,” he said, explaining that too many shares have been purchased by landowners solely to increase the value of their land. “And so that stockpiling of water really negatively impacts organizations like ours who want to or have plans to develop more affordable housing.”

He said VHH has asked Water District 19 to consider prioritization for affordable housing organizations, and also consider some kind of buyback or time limit to use water shares that have been purchased.

Board members of Vashon HouseHold, he said, will be present at a public meeting scheduled by Water District 19, during which community input will be gathered regarding the district’s allocation process. The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, at the Vashon-Maury Land Trust building.

Correction: An earlier version of this article inaccurately said that Kari Dohn Decker, interim executive director of Vashon HouseHold, would lead the search for the organization’s new permanent executive director. Vashon HouseHold’s board will lead that search, not Decker.