Seattle Pays $4,200 to Air-Condition Empty Hotel Rooms for Homeless
In a saga Seattle couldâve scripted as 'How to Empty $2.7M Without Moving a Soul,' Brenna Poppe cried tears of joy moving into the Civic Hotelâs 53 rooms in late 2022, only to see them emptied by 2024 while taxpayers shell out $4,200 monthly per vacant room through a $2.7 million lease extension signed amidst budget fears. Despite city officials calling it a 'pause,' internal drama spiced things upâwith Mayor Bruce Harrellâs office rejecting cheaper shelter options due to personal beefs. The unused luxury shelter next to 'McStabby's' McDonaldâs symbolizes Seattleâs homelessness juggling act, funded by $4.6M CoLEAD contracts and $2.1M safety ambassadors playing health care sherpa, while 87% of other 2,850 shelter units magically stay full.
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Seattleâs plan to fix homelessness apparently involves paying $4,200 a month for each empty hotel room, then ghosting the folks who need shelter. Budget deficits apparently require turning on nonstop ghost hotel mode while real people stay in real streets.
Seattle leases homeless hotel rooms at $4,200/month and provides ghost service onlyâcoming soon to a HBO documentary called 'How to Waste $2.7M and Call it a Budget Pause.'
The Civic Hotel now officially Seattleâs most expensive homeless Airbnb, because who needs beds when you can pay to stare at empty yellow doors?
Source: Propublica | Published: 10/6/2025 | Author: by Ashley Hiruko, KUOW
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