Businesswoman flees in terror after woke city officials let SEVEN homeless shelters open near her spa and dystopian chaos ensued, lawsuit alleges

By LAURA PARNABY, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER Published: 17:44, 3 June 2026 | Updated: 17:44, 3 June 2026 The owner of a luxury spa in Washington state has said she's been forced to close her business after the surrounding area was flooded with homeless shelters. Linda Biel has been running Urbanna Natural Spa, Salon and Wine on South Division Street in picturesque Spokane for more than 10 years, but she said the shelters have brought with them rampant drug-related crime. The entrepreneur has sued the City of Spokane and Catholic Charities for operating seven homeless facilities within a six-block radius of her business. Biel said that when she first opened shop in 2016, there were only two.  Biel's lawsuit claims that her salon became nearly impossible to operate thanks to homeless people exposing themselves in the entrance, defecating in the parking lot, shooting up drugs along the sidewalk, and screaming at patrons.  Urbanna was even robbed at gunpoint, and on another occasion, Biel said she turned up to work to find seven bullet holes through a window into a room for youth haircuts.  Biel noted that many residents in the homeless shelters are genuinely trying to get off the streets, but drug dealers often flock to the facilities to prey on vulnerable people.  The business owner said she feels forced to give up her salon, including all 33 of her employees, when they shutter for good on July 25.   Biel said she moved Urbanna to the once-tranquil nook of downtown Spokane in 2016, after previously operating just 500 feet away from its current location.  Linda Biel (pictured), the owner of a luxury spa in Washington state has said she's been forced to close her business after the surrounding area was flooded with homeless shelters, bringing rampant crime to the once-peaceful neighborhood Biel has been running Urbanna Natural Spa, Salon and Wine (pictured) in downtown Spokane for more than 10 years, but she said the district has been 'tainted' by drug-related crime 'When we moved down here, we were truly in search of peace and quiet and safety,' she told the Spokesman-Review.  'If you look at our little area, it's kind of like a little niche, just a little nook. But then, when they put that there, everything changed... 'The whole downtown is tainted. And we're the hot spot, we're the reason.'  Urbanna is located in a 120-year-old building which Biel said she spent tens of thousands of dollars converting it into a luxury spa. At the height of operations, the salon boasted a roster of 17,000 clients, Biel said, a number which has since dwindled to just 4,000.  Biel's lawsuit claims that the City of Spokane and Catholic Charities have not done enough to deter crime in the neighborhood.  Requesting $3.4million in damages, the suit states that the housing facilities run by the charity are 'chronic nuisances that must be mitigated.'  Dave Meany, the director of communications for Catholic Charities Eastern Washington, said the charity is not to blame for the salon's woes.  'We are confident that the litigation process will reveal that the spa, salon, and wine bar's closure is not a result of any activity on Catholic Charities' property and/or any conduct attributable to our residents, who are striving to improve their lives,' Meany said in a statement.  Catholic Charities' website states that it invests more than $1 million each year on safety and security in and around the facilities, including for security personnel and surveillance camera systems.  Meanwhile, Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown said she is a long-time client at Urbanna, and she had no control over the opening of homeless shelters in the vicinity.  'There is a concentration of affordable housing there,' the Democrat mayor told the Spokane-Review. 'All of that predates my administration. All of the decisions to locate things there are part of previous city decisions and nonprofit decisions.  'Since I've been in office, we have worked to address, to the extent possible, when it came to things we had control over.'  Spokane in Washington is known for its stunning natural beauty, which helped it become a boomtown during the Covid pandemic.  However, locals have been complaining about the increase in crime in certain pockets of the city for more than a year.   In April 2025, resident Elizabeth Flett described the downtown as 'worn down and trashed', adding that it's common to see 'a lot of people passed out sleeping'. Last year, 344 people died from an overdose in Spokane County. The figure was 346 in 2024. It comes after a sharp increase year-on-year from 2019, when there were only 80 overdose deaths recorded in the region.  Spokane County is home to about 561,000 people in total, according to the latest government data.  Kurtis Reese, the captain of the downtown precinct for the Spokane Police Department, said crime was down in the area last year, but that it has become more concentrated in certain pockets.  'The crime trends and kind of the groups of people move,' Reese told the Spokesman-Review.  'So you might have a concentration, let's say at State and Pacific, for a period of a couple days.  'We deal with that, and we address some of the things that are going on, and then the groups will move to 7-Eleven.'  The Daily Mail has contacted Biel, the City of Spokane, Mayor Lisa Brown, and Catholic Charities for comment.  No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. 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