A longtime Chinatown-International District property owner is suing the City of Seattle, claiming that city leaders intentionally concentrated homeless encampments and drug activity in Little Saigon, destroying his family’s business and property in the process.
The lawsuit, filed by Dennis L. Chinn and Chinn Investments, LLC, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleges that city policies violated constitutional protections against discrimination and unlawful property takings.
Chinn accuses both current and former city officials of “misguided efforts to solve the homelessness crisis” that disproportionately impacted ethnic-minority neighborhoods…