Owner of Civic Hotel used as homeless shelter sues Seattle, King County

The owner of a hotel in South Lake Union is suing Seattle and King County after a lease to use the building as a homeless shelter ended, claiming they violated their contracts and left rooms contaminated with drugs.

Seattle and King County deny most of the claims. However, the city, which used the hotel last, admitted there was some contamination left behind. The two local governments are also pointing fingers at each other, saying the other was responsible.

King County had a contract from 2020 to 2022 with the Civic Hotel, which was built in 1962 for Seattle’s World Fair and remodeled in 2019. When the pandemic hit, demand from tourists dried up. At the same time, local officials feared mass shelters where dozens of people slept inches apart would become breeding grounds for COVID-19.

So, using pandemic relief funding, King County acted quickly to rent hotels around the region, including the Civic, which has room for about 50 people, and moved homeless people from congregate shelters into individual rooms.

Seattle took over the lease from the county and continued to use the hotel as a homeless shelter operated by the CoLEAD program managed by nonprofit Purpose Dignity Action. The organization said the program prohibited people from smoking anything inside the building and that staff enforced that rule.

“If indoor smoking was identified and not rectified, the person would not be permitted to continue staying on the premises,” the nonprofit said in a statement

The organization said it couldn’t speak for how any shelter programs operated there before CoLEAD took over.

SRI Enterprise, the company that owns the building, said it paid out of pocket to test the building and found drug contamination at levels exceeding Washington State Department of Health standards. SRI claimed contracts with Seattle and King County required the governments to test for drug residue and to clean the rooms before they left.

The city admitted its contract required it to hire a bio-cleaning company to wash drapes and carpets in all the rooms, that it didn’t do so, and that testing found drug contamination. But the city disputes the amount the hotel owner is seeking, saying it was provided with a list of costs that were unclear, unsupported by estimates and weren’t required by their contract.

Washington state has decontamination standards for methamphetamine but not for fentanyl. The Department of Health says residue from meth and fentanyl has never reportedly caused death in adults, and that minor effects like rashes or headaches are temporary. However, younger children that put their hands in their mouth have a higher risk for exposure.

Seattle also said in its response that “King County failed to clean and repair damage to the premises upon termination of the King County License” which ended before the city took over the building.

Meanwhile, King County, which is also named in the lawsuit, said that some or all of the damages were caused by the city or other individuals that it had no control over after its contract ended.