Earlier today, over the objections of homeless encampment residents and with the praise of human services providers, the Seattle City Council unanimously voted to permanently appoint Catherine Lester as the head of Seattle’s Human Services Department. (Councilmember Nick Licata was absent and did not vote.)

Recently, Lester has been the object of ire from homeless encampment residents who hold the interim director responsible for delays in funding that the council set aside for encampments in November. You might remember the council making headlines after it included in its most recent budget $100,000 to improve conditions at homeless encampments, including money to pay for Internet service. None of that money has yet been spent, despite encampment residents’ pleas for financial help amid mounting bills.

But Lester is popular among nonprofit social service providers—and among the council. During public comment, a representative of New Beginnings, a domestic violence group, called her a “consummate professional” with a “demonstrated commitment to meaningful community engagement.”

Councilmember Bruce Harrell “proudly and unconditionally” supported her appointment, and Councilmember Mike O’Brien said she’s done “an outstanding job to date.” Council President Tim Burgess “urge[d] my colleagues to vote in favor of her appointment.”

Councilmember Kshama Sawant voiced concerns about the $100,000, calling the delay in its dispersal “unacceptable.” “The money is there but is sequestered behind red tape,” she said. However, the council’s only socialist ultimately voted in favor of Lester’s appointment, saying that the problems at HSD predate Lester. “The blame does not lie solely at her feet,” she said.

Sawant’s concerns echoed an earlier hearing at the beginning of April in which she, along with Councilmembers Rasmussen and Clark, asked Lester about the funds’ dispersal. Lester told them that HSD is waiting to see what kind of complementary funding it can get from other city departments, in order to spend the $100,000 as efficiently as possible.

But when pressed by Sawant, Lester—who received copies of the committee’s questions ahead of time—said she’d get back to the councilmembers with specifics. (The memo Lester later sent did not explain the delay.) She went on to say that the encampment funding was being delayed in part because HSD is “thinking about how to most flexibly support operators in a way that doesn’t catch them in some of the bureaucracy of a traditional contract with the city.”

“I seem to notice a certain irony here,” replied Sawant. “I appreciate your desire to keep the bureaucracy out of it, but this is bureaucratic delay.”

Today, Lester acknowledged the opposition she’s received from the encampment residents, and the lackluster response she gave to Sawant’s questions two weeks ago. “Folks who are living in encampments are dealing with some really critical immediate needs,” she said, “and [at the earlier hearing] I wasn’t able to provide a very concrete way in which [HSD] would support those needs.”

Lester will meet tomorrow with representatives of Nickelsville, an encampment in the International District. Those representatives say that while they’re not thrilled at her appointment, they’re ready to work with the new director going forward.

Lester now permanently oversees a department that’s in rough shape. Seattle’s HSD has had five different executives since 2008, including Lester as an interim director during 2013-14 and again this year. Another note of its dysfunction comes from the state auditor’s office, which for a couple years now has been dinging HSD for, as the Seattle Times put it, “play[ing] fast and loose with millions of dollars in federal grants.”

cjaywork@seattleweekly.com