Never in my life would I expect a story like this out of Seattle. Never (sorry for the sarcasm).
The Civic Hotel is suing Seattle and King County after the city and county leased their property from 2020-2024 to house the homeless and then allegedly left the property in disgusting shape to the point where parts of it will have to be completely gutted. The property had been fully renovated in 2018.
The hotel, which sits across 7th Avenue from Apple's Seattle HQ, is now allegedly uninhabitable due to all the fentanyl and meth.
"They were supposed to biohazard test and clean the property," says hotel owner Neha Nariya. "They did not."
The lawsuit cites a 2024 case, which I'll warn you is pretty terrible:
In the lawsuit, she specifically cites a 2024 case involving a baby that was found deceased inside the hotel with fentanyl and meth in their system. The mother, who was a tenant, has been charged with murder. Nariya says the city failed to properly manage people and make sure they were not doing drugs inside.
Now, both the city and the county are finger-pointing. In a filing, the Seattle City Attorney's office said that the 'City admits that King County failed to clean and repair damage to the premises' and that 'The City admits that it did not obtain a bid from a bio-cleaning company.'
But the filing also suggests that 'The City denies that the Seattle License required the City to "carefully supervise tenants"' and 'The City is without sufficient knowledge' to admit or deny the remaining statements.' However, the organization known as Purpose Dignity Action, or PDA, helped to manage the site and services during the time in question under the umbrella of CoLEAD.
PDA, of course, claims that they had the place all cleaned up in December 2024 and seems to blame the city for allowing randos to enter the hotel during that transition period. Regardless of what is fact or fiction, the lawsuit carries on.
Here's some shots of the contaminated hotel:
And that is your hotel on government handouts!
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