Hotel owner who leased property to Seattle, King County for homeless housing sues over drugs, contamination, filth

A Seattle hotel owner is suing the city and King County after the facility was used to house homeless people and was left contaminated with deadly amounts of fentanyl and meth. The lawsuit cited the death of an infant, who was found deceased with meth and fentanyl in their system.

Neha Nariya and her family agreed to lease the Civil Hotel to Seattle and King County in 2020 to serve as a homeless shelter. However, after the lease ended in 2024, the local government allegedly failed to clean the place up. Nariya alleged that the city violated the terms of the contract, per KOMO News.

Nariya said in the lawsuit that the hotel is contaminated with fentanyl and meth residue, and the building cannot able to be used for hospitality services, being uninhabitable. The lawsuit specifically cites that a baby was found dead in 2024, and fentanyl as well as meth were found in the infant's system. The mother of the child, who was also living in the hotel, was charged with murder in the case.

The lawsuit alleges that the city failed to manage those living there while under the contract, who were not supposed to be using illicit drugs inside the hotel. In a filing, the city of Seattle pointed fingers at the county. Seattle City Attorney's office said, the "City admits that King County failed to clean and repair damage to the premises," as well as "The City admits that it did not obtain a bid from a bio-cleaning company.”

In the filing, the city also "denies that the Seattle License required the City to ‘carefully supervise tenants.'" King County, however, said it is "without sufficient information to form a belief as to the truth of" some of the allegations brought in the lawsuit.

Additionally, an organization, known as Purpose Dignity Action (PDA), which helped to manage the site for the local government during the lease, stated, “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 Coleader 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."

PDA went on to claim, “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."

Nariya said, “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?"