Request photo reprints. It's about justice. Johnson has worked to bring low-cost rental housing to suburban communities and helped to found one of the Eastside's larger nonprofit housing groups, the St. Andrews Housing Group. She was instrumental in creating 190 affordable housing units in east King County and she also helped to preserve Ellsworth House, the only subsidized senior housing on Mercer Island.
Affordable housing is a low-profile issue.
Johnson helped found the St. Andrews Housing Group in 1988 after taking a break from her investment management job to raise her three children. Forming St. Andrews, she said, gave her the opportunity to do something challenging and tangible during her five-year break. That was about the time the HDC was formed. Johnson heard about the HDC through her church. Nearly all of the member organizations were in downtown Seattle, so Johnson formed St. Andrews.