Dori: Edmonds hotel-turned-shelter closed due to drug contamination

Less than four months after Snohomish County purchased the Edmonds Best Value Inn on Highway 99 for more than $9 million to provide “time-limited, bridge housing” for homeless locals, the Highway 99 facility has been closed due to methamphetamine contamination, a county official has confirmed.

Neighbors started texting The Dori Monson Show earlier this week when “DO NOT ENTER!” signs posted by Snohomish Health District showed up on fences surrounding the hotel-turned-shelter.

On Thursday, Snohomish County Councilman Nate Nehring told Dori’s listeners that the 55-unit facility in the 22700 block of the highway – purchased with COVID relief money under the American Rescue Plan Act – was shut down.

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“There’s meth contamination throughout the building,” Nehring said. “It’s a mess.”

Instead of using the rooms as housing, the councilman continued, “these rooms were used as meth labs.”

Nehring was one of two on the Snohomish County Council to oppose using the Edmonds hotel as a shelter unless there was a drug treatment requirement for residents. He and the other Republicans on the council were voted down 2-3. Instead, the Democrats on the council moved forward following what is considered ‘Housing First’ – a model with no drug testing of residents.

“I was disappointed to see that proposal fail,” Nehring told Dori. “I think those on the other side are really hitting hard on the Housing First model. I believe very strongly that when we’re using taxpayer money, those struggling with addiction should be required to participate in a drug treatment program.”

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It is still unclear whether the county will need to continue paying for the now-closed facility and whether it plans to clean it for reopening, Dori said. Decontaminating meth-polluted facilities is expensive, Nehring added, and there are no estimates for what it might cost to clean it.

This shelter, he continued, is just one of many examples of how taxpayer money is being used “with little results to show for it. Nehring favors “trying something different. . . What we’re currently doing is not working. It’s not getting people clean and it’s using a lot of taxpayer dollars.”

“The compassionate approach is let’s provide housing,” Dori said. “Let’s provide places where people can get out of the cold and the heat of the summertime – but it has to have programs in those facilities where people can get drug treatment, alcohol treatment, mental health treatment, job training. Let’s give them a chance to get their life back.”

Listen to Dori Monson weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.