Hotel owner sues Seattle, King County over contamination after homeless shelter lease

https://komonews.com/news/local/seattle-hotel-sues-city-king-county-
alleging-homeless-contaminated-it-w-fentanyl-meth#

SEATTLE — Neha Nariya says she and her family were trying to help the city 
during a time of crisis, but now feel like they’ve been left with a crisis 
of their own.

There are people who do things, and there are people who say they could 
have done things. And this is one of those moments,” said the owner of the 
Civic Hotel in South Lake Union. “We're stepping up to help the community.
That’s why Nariya and her late father agreed to lease the hotel to the 
City and King County in 2020 to serve as a homeless shelter. But she says, 
after the County ended the lease in December of 2024, they failed to abide 
by the contract and clean the place up.

Nariya says the entire hotel, which was fully renovated in 2018 and sits 
across the street from Apple’s Seattle headquarters, is now contaminated 
with methamphetamine and fentanyl residue from the people who once lived 
there, and that the building is uninhabitable. That’s why she’s now suing 
Seattle and King County to fix the problem. The suit was filed in 
Snohomish County earlier this month.

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.

In a statement, the PDA refuted some of the claims.

“The Civic Hotel was a wonderful venue to do low-barrier shelter work the 
last few years. We regretted having to leave last December because the 
ongoing leasing costs were just too high. As recently as this spring, the 
owners, who have been great to work with, were asking if we could return. 
Before CoLEAD started work at the Civic, the Civic leased the space for a 
different sheltering program not run by us. We can't speak to how that 
program operated, but during our tenure, we required that our program 
participants not smoke any substances inside the building, and we enforced 
that requirement. Of course, as in any hotel, occasionally, someone 
violates the rules and smokes in the building -- but as in any hotel, if 
indoor smoking is identified and not rectified, the person would not be 
permitted to continue staying on the premises. We also took good care of 
the premises because we respect the owners and also because our 
participants deserved to stay in a well-maintained facility. We hope this 
matter is quickly and amicably resolved.”

The PDA says it helped to manage the site from late summer of 2021 through 
December 2024, and “In the process of wrapping up the move-out, there was 
visible evidence that people (unrelated to our program) were gaining 
entry.” The statement continued, “When we left, we did a thorough visual 
inspection with the owners, and the building was in good shape, including 
removal of all garbage and debris.”

The Seattle City Attorney, King County Executive, King County Civil 
Division, and PDA all declined interviews on Friday.

“They've dragged their feet every time we've gone to them. They 
acknowledge the contamination, they acknowledge that they are supposed to 
be doing something, but they just haven't done anything,” said Nariya.

She also suggests that the city and county are slow rolling the issue 
because Sound Transit is eyeing the spot for a future light rail station. 
“Part of me believes they are using (the contamination) to drive down the 
value when they do have to acquire, or are they using that so that I 
eventually have to fold?”

Nariya says it may also mean she can’t reopen in time for the 2026 World 
Cup, when hotel rooms are expected to be in high demand.

“We’re just kind of stuck,” she said.


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama 
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.