Allegations of racism, overstepping boundaries, lying about her role, and using pepper spray on a visitor snowballed into the undoing of a Housing Authority of San Luis Obispo (HASLO) tenant commissioner.
The SLO City Council unanimously approved removing HASLO Tenant Commissioner Nancy Welsh from her position at a special meeting on Dec. 15. Council members appointed Welsh as a tenant commissioner in April 2025 for a two-year term expiring in March 2027.
“While I was notified of allegations, I have never been given due process,” Welsh said at the meeting. “I have not been shown the sources of the complaints nor given any opportunity to respond. The information being presented is inaccurate, and I have not participated in the actions I’m accused of.”
HASLO’s two tenant commissioners belong to a governing board of seven members. Commissioners approve the housing agency’s annual budget and set policy. Executive Director Michelle Pedigo said at the meeting that commissioners don’t engage in day-to-day operations, direct staff, or act in a managerial capacity.
“Those responsibilities belong to staff because of significant training,” Pedigo said. “Commissioners also play an essential role in protecting the agency’s mission and ensuring resident trust.”
Welsh faces five allegations of concerning behavior that HASLO staff documented from September to November 2025.
Following multiple reports of Welsh allegedly acting like staff or a supervisor at a housing site and a written notice detailing appropriate boundaries, a HASLO project resident complained about Welsh making racist remarks.
Before an October board meeting, Welsh allegedly tried to enter an employee-only area even after being asked to wait in the lobby, and there was physical contact between Welsh and a staff member who attempted to stop her.
The city’s staff report noted other alleged safety issues.
“In one incident, an altercation occurred involving a visitor, during which Commissioner Welsh used pepper spray,” the staff report said. “Accounts of the event differ; however, witness statements indicate that Commissioner Welsh approached a neighbor’s door following an earlier interaction and pepper-sprayed the neighbor’s guest immediately upon the door being opened at a time when there was no apparent threat warranting the use of pepper spray.”
According to court documents, the SLO County District Attorney’s Office charged Welsh with the misdemeanor of using a tear gas weapon in October 2025. Her arraignment is scheduled for January.
Other residents claimed that they felt intimidated by some of Welsh’s statements that suggested her tenant commissioner role could affect their housing status.
Finally, HASLO staff discovered that Welsh allegedly allowed an unauthorized person with an active arrest warrant to move into a vacant unit after identifying herself as the property manager. The unauthorized resident held a knife and was agitated when staff approached him. HASLO called the police to remove him from the site.
At the City Council meeting, Welsh said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) had begun reviewing her case. She requested the council to postpone voting on her removal until federal findings were available.
HASLO Executive Director Pedigo told council members that the agency hadn’t received correspondence from HUD or Padilla’s office about the complaint.
“After the first meeting we had with [Welsh], she no longer wanted to engage with us face to face, so they were all via email,” Pedigo said. “She was given two lease violations that listed out the incidences and requested that that behavior stopped. She was allowed a chance to respond to those, although her response didn’t indicate that she would stop the behavior, and the behavior didn’t stop.”
HASLO didn’t address the allegations against Welsh at board meetings. Pedigo told New Times that the agency wanted to protect individual privacy and dignity.
“This approach was chosen to promote safety and maintain a constructive environment, while still complying with all applicable requirements,” she said. “The removal hearing was required to be an open session per the code.”
Welsh’s former tenant commissioner role is now vacant. Interested applicants can apply through the city’s job site at governmentjobs.com/careers/slobispo. ∆
This article appears in 2025 Year in Review.
