Salon owner to sue Spokane, Catholic Charities, for $3.5M over homeless ‘havens’

(The Center Square) – The city of Spokane and Catholic Charities are facing a $3.49 million tort claim after a local salon owner claimed she lost business due to several housing projects located nearby.

Linda Biel, co-owner of Urbanna Natural Spa, Salon & Wine, filed the claim with Eowen Rosentrater Attorneys, a law firm only a short walk away from her business. The salon was originally about a block away with a gravel parking lot on its side, but then Catholic Charities started building "havens" around it.

The nonprofit now offers hundreds of units for the homeless, and Compassionate Addiction Treatment Spokane moved in after Urbanna left, further concentrating services. CAT eventually moved again last winter, but the low-barrier units are still there, and business owners are grappling with the impacts.

The claim calls out seven Catholic Charities projects located around downtown, citing a spike in crime, evidenced by hundreds of incidents every few months. The closest one is across the street from Beil’s salon, built on a vacant lot after she moved there, with the furthest only about a quarter-mile away.

“Both the residents of the facility and the public residing and conducting business,” Beil alleged in her tort claim, “are impacted and harmed by the crime that Catholic Charities and [Spokane] have allowed to persist due to insufficient protections, oversight, and lack of enforcement of city and state laws.”

Dave Meany, director of communications for Catholic Charities Eastern Washington, said the nonprofit is aware of the complaint. In a statement to The Center Square, CCEW called the filing “orchestrated” and labeled it as “misleading, inaccurate and baseless allegations," arguing the facts are on their side.

Biel presented statistics obtained from public records requests to highlight a dramatic spike in crime around each project. According to her complaint, first responders have received 47 to 191 calls about incidents in and around the project across the street from Biel every six months from 2021 to 2024.

“We look forward to the opportunity to set the record straight as we rigorously defend all aspects of this claim and as we explore our other legal options,” Meany explained. “This litigation does not affect our ongoing commitment to do the hard work many others are either unable or unwilling to do.”

The tort claim also references hundreds of calls to first responders for incidents in and around the six other projects that Biel called out across a similar time period. She also brought up internal memos that CCEW President and CEO Robb McCann sent to board members in 2018. Some of whom allegedly frequented Biel’s business, with McCann accusing her of distributing “a very hate speech-filled flyer.”

He claimed that Biel attempted to shutter one of CCEW’s more infamous projects, House of Charity.

According to the claim, McCann allegedly described Biel’s efforts as “mentally unstable and offensive.”

“The facts and Jesus are on our side. Catholic Charities Eastern Washington will not waver from this work. Love always wins,” according to a quote from McCann that CCEW included in its statement.

When The Center Square requested a statement from Mayor Lisa Brown, Communications Director Erin Hut responded that, “We have received the claim and will review it as we do with all claims.”

State law requires Biel’s attorneys to wait 60 days after filing the tort claim before starting a lawsuit in Spokane County Superior Court. Notably, she also recently filed an ethics complaint against Brown and the Spokane City Council’s progressive majority, which they are now facing an investigation over.

Reporting by The Center Square uncovered messages between the mayor and council majority after her controversial camping ban failed due to its requiring advanced notice to break up encampments.

Biel also referenced emails in her claim that McCann sent to the council in 2018, recognizing safety concerns at House of Charity, noting that the area around it had become “a scene out of Woodstock.”

Her employees and customers allegedly have to frequently deal with people breaking into their cars, stealing, leaving human waste on and around the vehicles and leaving needles in front of the salon.

Many are allegedly screamed at and threatened by those individuals, who sometimes enter uninvited.

“Our apartments and wrap-around services are a true blessing for the low-income men, women, and children who have a safe and supportive place to sleep each night,” according to CCEW’s statement. “Rather than being a nuisance, our properties are a life raft for people to escape homelessness.”

Beil says she was even physically assaulted after asking a person not to urinate on the salon, who allegedly then threw a hot coffee in her face. Others have allegedly entered Urbanna and exposed their genitalia. Beil claims that this has all led to a loss of business, not due to the quality of her services, but rather the impact of homelessness and open-air drug use that proliferates around downtown.

She wants the city and CCEW to pay up and address these “chronic nuisances that must be mitigated.”

“These facilities, built with the City’s authorization, approval, and financial support, have been the subject of numerous police reports, 911 calls, and complaints documenting criminal activity, illicit drug use, and violent incidents involving tenants of the facilities,” Biel alleged in the tort claim.