One year in, conflict emerges at Island Center Homes

Published 10:30 am Tuesday, January 20, 2026

Just over a year after its ribbon-cutting, Island Center Homes has added much-needed housing on Vashon, providing deeply subsidized units to people who are among the hardest to house.

Thirty residents now live in the five-building, 40-unit complex — 19 of whom were previously unhoused, living in vehicles or outside.

But the affordable housing development is now at the center of a conflict between Vashon HouseHold, the nonprofit that built and manages it, and a longtime advocate for the unhoused population of the island, Hilary Emmer.

An issue in this complex saga is how Vashon HouseHold addresses some of the inevitable challenges that come with housing people who have lived on the margins for years, sometimes decades and whether a social worker is needed to better support its residents.

Amy Drayer, Vashon HouseHold’s executive director, takes pride in what the organization has accomplished and says Emmer’s criticisms are misplaced.

“People I personally know are safer every night because of Island Center Homes,” she said.

Emmer, a longtime volunteer and former board president of the Vashon Interfaith Council to Prevent Homelessness, initially supported the project and helped connect Vashon HouseHold with its first residents. “We had a great working relationship,” she said.

But that relationship has since unraveled and Vashon HouseHold — contending Emmer has overstepped her bounds — served Emmer with a cease-and-desist letter.

Emmer now alleges the nonprofit failed to deliver promised support services — specifically, an on-site social worker — and is wrongly trying to evict a tenant she knows personally, underscoring what she sees as the need for greater support for struggling residents.

“I just want people to be given a fair chance,” she said.

Background

Island Center Homes is the newest project of Vashon HouseHold, which provides affordable rental and ownership opportunities to around 400 residents through 166 units across the island. More than 200 people remain on the waiting list for Vashon HouseHold’s properties.

After a seven-year planning and construction process, Island Center Homes opened in December 2024 at the corner of Vashon Highway and Southwest 188th Street.

Its 40 units were designed to serve people earning 30% or less of the area median income — including seniors, people with disabilities, those with mental health or substance use challenges and people exiting homelessness.

Funded through county and state dollars — including the Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy — the project requires that half of its units be reserved for veterans. As a result, 10 units remain vacant, Drayer said, due in part to a lack of eligible veterans on Vashon and difficulty relocating qualifying tenants from Seattle.

Still, the impact for existing residents has been significant, said housing stewardship manager Rachael Hetrick.

“A lot of people were living very isolated lives — that now have a sense of community,” she said. “They’re building their own community here. They’re very proud of it.”

On-site social services

During Island Center Homes’ multi-year development process, Vashon HouseHold leaders repeatedly detailed their plans to staff the housing project with an onsite social worker.

In a 2022 Beachcomber article, Drayer — who was not affiliated with Vashon HouseHold at the time — wrote that “providing wrap-around social services will also be a priority,” adding that the organization planned to “assign a social worker to help meet the existing and emerging needs of residents.”

Jason Johnson, who served as Vashon HouseHold’s executive director from 2022 to 2024, also said that a social worker would be onsite for residents in a July 2024 Beachcomber article — making Island Center Homes the only other VHH property, besides the senior housing project JG Commons, to have a service element.

The social worker will be a crucial connection to other services and to the island for residents, he said in the article.

Johnson did not respond to a request for comment before press time.

A December 2024 Beachcomber story cited plans for a full-time coordinator to assist residents in accessing food, utility and education support. And a King County Department of Community and Human Services April blog post describes Island Center Homes as having an on-site social worker through its HSS funding.

Drayer, however, contends that while the need for services was discussed, no such position was ever contractually promised.

On Jan. 14, after several interviews with The Beachcomber about this issue, Vashon HouseHold released a statement to its mailing list of donors and supporters defending its staffing model at Island Center Homes.

“Neither county nor state funding contracts require an on-site licensed social worker for this type of housing,” Vashon HouseHold said in the statement.

The organization said it employs a full-time, on-site housing stewardship manager, Rachael Hetrick, who connects tenants to services and helps maintain community stability — a model chosen over an on-site social worker based on resident needs, available funding and best practices, Drayer said.

“There was no promise made, there was no contract made,” Drayer said in an interview. “It is wholly inappropriate to hold up a quote from two years ago when everything was completely different.”

The population makeup at Island Center Homes shifted, Drayer said. The resources that Vashon HouseHold has to run Island Center Homes also changed, she said.

Originally, the organization anticipated all residents would be exiting homelessness, which would have justified an on-site social worker, she said.

The current tenant mix includes 19 people exiting homelessness and 10 veterans, she said. She also said more social services are now available than during initial planning, including on-island providers such as Vashon Island Fire & Rescue’s Mobile Integrated Health program.

In 2021, Chris Szala, Vashon HouseHold’s former executive director who spearheaded the housing project, told The Beachcomber that residents would also have access to a social worker and that Vashon HouseHold secured funding for a three-quarter time social worker to support residents who live on the property, especially residents who are coming out of homelessness.

In a recent email, Szala confirmed the original proposal did include at least a part-time position focused on helping residents access benefits to reduce the risk of returning to homelessness.

“People coming out of homelessness or people with behavioral health or other issues need assistance in applying for benefits,” he said in an email, adding that such support “increases the chance of success in their lives.”

Hetrick acknowledged the limitations of connecting residents with off-site providers.

“Just because they make an appointment with a service provider doesn’t mean the tenant is going to show up, or will have the ability to show up,” she said.

Island Center Homes follows a “permanent housing with supports” model — not permanent supportive housing, which typically requires on-site case management. The support model relies on voluntary service connection.

“We do our best to help assess a situation, to help connect people,” Hetrick said. “But if they deny it, don’t want it, we’re not going to make them.”

A growing rift

Tensions between Emmer and Vashon HouseHold escalated last summer after a tenant who was previously unhoused received multiple eviction notices.

After two informal notices, a formal eviction was filed in December, citing “multiple lease violations and endangering the safety of other residents,” Drayer said.

Emmer was recognized at the 2024 ribbon-cutting for her role in recruiting residents for Island Center Homes. She was also praised by Kari Dohn Decker, Vashon HouseHold’s interim executive director, in a Dec. 19, 2024 Beachcomber article, who called Emmer “incredible … day and night in helping us [identify] potential and future residents. We could never do this without Hilary.”

But by August, that relationship had deteriorated. Emmer received a forceful cease-and-desist letter from Vashon HouseHold, ending their partnership and accusing her of spreading false information about Island Center Homes and violating a confidentiality agreement.

“We sent that because she was distributing inaccurate information to community partners,” Drayer said, including misinformation about staff and tenants.

Emmer continued speaking out, alleging the eviction reflected deeper failures — namely, that the tenant never received the support that was promised. “If we want people to succeed, we can’t punish them for their behavior and expect the behavior to change overnight,” Emmer said.

Emmer said tenants should only face eviction if their behavior doesn’t improve after working with an on-site social worker for at least six months.

“They haven’t held up their end of the bargain,” Emmer said. “Why should the tenants have to hold theirs?”

Drayer maintains that eviction is always a last resort, but sometimes necessary to protect the broader community. “We are constantly balancing that burden of how we meet this individual’s needs — and the needs of the individual who lives next door,” she said.

Vashon HouseHold Board President Anne Atwell said she sees the case as an isolated situation involving a tenant who had access to services, not a failure of Hetrick or the staffing model.

“He’s had a lot of support in my understanding,” Atwell said. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to be accountable for your actions and if you’re impacting an entire community and making people feel unsafe, at some point something’s got to give.”

Emmer has also raised concerns about Hetrick’s dual role managing leases and connecting residents to services, arguing that property management and case management should remain separate.

She believes those responsibilities are inherently in conflict — with property managers tasked with protecting the property and social workers or case managers focused on supporting the individual.

“A property manager advocates for the property,” Emmer said. “A case manager advocates for the individual. They are sometimes opposing priorities.”

She also said Hetrick lacks the clinical training to effectively support vulnerable residents. “They’re not helping these people get what they need and what they promised them,” she said.

Hetrick, who does not hold a social work degree, said her nonprofit background and personal experience help her approach the work with empathy. “I’ve dealt with the anxiety of landlords my whole life,” she said. “I don’t want to be that to the people that I serve.”

New funding

In November, King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda awarded $29,888 to Vashon HouseHold to support a partnership with Vashon Youth and Family Services (VYFS).

“[The funds] are to support VHH’s partnership with VYFS currently focused on enhancing access to services for Island Center Homes residents with a community resource navigator and substance use disorder resources,” said Erin House, chief of staff to King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, in an email.

Drayer said Vashon HouseHold has worked with VYFS since August to develop this resident-services partnership at Island Center Homes, with an initial plan for a VYFS staff member to be on site about four hours a week for resource navigation and service coordination.

But the county grant is unrestricted and can support the program as it’s refined to meet residents’ needs, she said.

Separately, the Vashon Health Care District, in its 2026 budget, approved $60,000 for a part-time case manager or social worker to support unhoused or recently housed residents on Vashon, including those at Island Center Homes.

Tim Johnson, superintendent of the Vashon Health Care District, said the position would begin as soon as possible and include work with Island Center Homes as part of its islandwide responsibilities.

“We look forward to those conversations about how to integrate that with Rachael’s work,” Drayer said.

Drayer pushed back on the notion that Island Center Homes is falling short — or that early public statements define the organization’s current obligations.

“Any resident who wants to be connected to services is connected to services,” she said. “Folks at Island Center Homes are getting the resources that they need to thrive.”

She expressed pride in the program and was hesitant to acknowledge a resource gap at the site.

“Anyone who is working at a Vashon social services agency, I would argue, is there because they have incredible passion,” Drayer said. “We’re really proud of the work that we’ve been able to do. Everyone can always do better. We can always do more. We can always do better. And we’re doing that.”

Drayer also questioned Emmer’s motives, suggesting her push for a social worker stems less from broader concerns and more from her personal ties to the tenant facing eviction.

“For Hilary to zoom in this close and be this myopic about this one issue is ridiculous and I want to get out of her framing,” Drayer said. “It’s just crazy.”

Emmer, for her part, is equally frustrated with Vashon HouseHold and is worried tenants will continue to be evicted if a social worker is not brought in to help. “Island Center Homes is a really good concept,” she said. “They have ruined the concept by not following through with their promise.”

Meanwhile, the dispute appears likely to continue. The tenant’s initial court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 21. Emmer says she plans to be there and to continue pushing for his housing.