Andrea Suarez says Washington state has opened a workplace-safety investigation into We Heart Seattle over how the nonprofit handles discarded drug paraphernalia collected during cleanup work. The founder said she was stunned to learn of the probe, which she described as the group’s first government investigation. That’s the hierarchy on display: a volunteer cleanup outfit gets the paperwork and scrutiny, while the mess it’s trying to remove keeps spilling through parks, playgrounds and public spaces.
Who Gets Scrutinized
We Heart Seattle sends volunteers to pick up and dispose of needles, smoking supplies such as pipes and foil, and other drug-use items distributed through King County harm reduction programs. Suarez said she has spent seven years working on cleaner streets, parks and playgrounds, and said the group has logged more than 50,000 hours of volunteer service. Founded in 2020 as a solo operation, she said, the organization has grown into an army of hundreds of volunteers over the past six-and-a-half years. The people doing the cleanup are not the ones making the mess. They’re the ones left to deal with it.
The Washington Department of Labor & Industries is investigating the group after a complaint alleging improper handling and collection of hypodermic needles and fentanyl paraphernalia, according to documents sent to Suarez and viewed by Fox News Digital. The department said the complaint came from someone outside the organization. Spokesman Matt Ross said inspections can take up to six months and that the results are made public once complete. He said there is also a related probe into a temporary staffing agency, but declined to give specifics. Ross said inspectors may issue violations if an organization is not meeting requirements and may also issue violations for other safety hazards they observe during an inspection. He said inspectors also work with organizations on the best way to address hazards and that potential penalties depend on the specifics of the violations.
What the Volunteers Say
Suarez denied wrongdoing and said the group uses gloves, grabbers and sharps-disposal procedures. She pointed to safety guidance on We Heart Seattle’s website, which tells supporters what to wear to protect themselves from hazards, including long pants, sleeves and closed-toed boots, and gives guidance for volunteers picking up debris. Suarez said she visited a harm reduction site after learning of the investigation and asked for specific guidance on handling fentanyl foil and other dangerous drug supplies, but said staff did not provide instructions.
She argued that the state is applying a double standard by scrutinizing her group’s handling of discarded drug-use supplies while local harm reduction programs distribute some of the same materials. Suarez said, "We have been out here for... going on seven years every day, every weekend we're out there picking up needles and trash. And for my 'thank you' letter from the government, it was this letter saying, 'You're under investigation for allegedly improperly handling this very equipment that they hand out with no instructions.'" The quote lands hard because it names the arrangement plainly: public money and public programs on one side, volunteers on the other, and the cleanup crew gets the warning letter.
Suarez also said, "You have to look at the optics of a state, a county, a city level that allows people to openly use lethal and illegal narcotics like methamphetamines and fentanyl, and they give you the paraphernalia to use those drugs on our taxpayer dime, to use in public spaces with no consequences... and then I'm over hear trying to manage the problem, clean up our dog parks, clean up our children's merry-go-rounds, ensuring our playgrounds don't have needles and foil sticking up through the grass, and I'm the one under investigation," adding, "The optics are egregious."
The System’s Answer
She said, "I think I'm going to go after the state to say, 'Why aren't you training me before I go into our city library when there's drug addicts slumped over in all of the computer chairs, using our bathrooms, shooting drugs and leaving their paraphernalia all around the perimeter, putting me or my child or dog at risk of picking something up and getting a blood-borne pathogen infection of sorts,' right?" She added, "So this whole city is a blood-borne pathogen risk for everybody. I think that's why people don't go to these public places anymore, and they really frankly have been overtaken by drug users."
Suarez said she plans to look into whether her group was unfairly targeted. She described herself as relatively apolitical before starting the nonprofit, but said the cleanup work has increasingly drawn the organization into political disputes over Seattle’s drug and homelessness policies. That’s how these systems work: ordinary people trying to patch up the damage get pulled into the machinery whether they want it or not.
King County defended its harm reduction approach, saying it is intended to reduce overdoses while connecting people with treatment and other services. Spokesperson Sharon Bogan said, "The influx of fentanyl led to a sharp rise in fatal overdoses across the U.S. and in King County. Our comprehensive approach to overdose response and recovery focuses on getting more people into treatment and preventing more overdoses," and added that the county saw a "promising overall decline in overdoses" of 32% between 2023 and 2025. Representatives from the city of Seattle did not return a request for comment. The county’s defense is the familiar language of managed crisis: treatment, services, response, recovery. Meanwhile, the volunteers are still out there with gloves, grabbers and sharps procedures, cleaning up what the institutions have already failed to contain.