The shelter for unhoused people that had empty rooms, despite Seattle spending millions on it
In a bid to make progress on homelessness during the pandemic, Seattle began housing people in a shelter at the Civic Hotel, just a few blocks from the Space Needle. The space offered wraparound services and, unlike some other shelters, didn’t require its clients to be sober.
And all in all, it seemed like things were going pretty well.
Then Seattle stopped sending people there. Rooms were empty, despite the fact that the city had committed millions of dollars to keep using the building.
A new investigation digs into why the city stopped using the Civic Hotel… and the complicated journey to finding a replacement.
Guest:
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Ashley Hiruko, an investigative reporter at KUOW and a fellow with ProPublica.
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Libby Denkmann
Host, Soundside
Libby Denkmann joined KUOW in December 2021 as the host of the midday show Soundside. She’s a native Pacific Northwesterner who grew up in Redmond, graduated from the University of Washington, and covered local news as a producer and reporter with KIRO Radio.
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Maleeha Syed
Producer, Soundside
Maleeha is a producer on Soundside, a show that helps listeners get to know the PNW and each other. Before KUOW, she worked at Cascade PBS, first as a communities reporter and then as a podcast producer on shows like Northwest Reports and Your Last Meal. Before moving to Seattle, she worked as a reporter at the Burlington Free Press in Vermont, but is originally from San Antonio.
More stories from Maleeha Syed »
