SALT LAKE CITY — From hearing doors banging at all hours of the day and night to finding drugs littering the ground and homeless people sleeping in the hallways, Jeanine Mounteer has lived at Lorna Doone apartments for eight years and has never felt so unsafe, she said.
“My daughter and son-in-law won't come up here, and they both have guns, but they won't come up here because the drugs and all that, and I mean, that breaks my heart,” said Mounteer. “We always have Christmas here, and it's not going to be happening this year.”
She’s sent about 30 emails in the last few months to her landlord, she guesses.
“In my own apartment building I expect to be safe, and it's advertised as secure, and it isn't secure anymore,” she said. “I've had my tires stolen off my car out back.”
Jeanine and her neighbor, Robin Roberts, sometimes fear for their lives when they come and go from their home.
“I’ve seen drug deals going on," said Roberts. “I've been attacked here by several different people.”
The Utah Nonprofit Housing Corporation owns the building and is aware of the residents’ concerns, according to executive director Marion Willey.
“When you're cold, and you're looking for a warm place, you'll do almost anything to be warm,” he said.
UNHC recently replaced the doors and hired a building monitor, and they expect the money Governor Spencer Cox recently announced he would put toward homeless resources will improve the situation.
“I think we can resolve this problem,” said Willey. “There's more money in housing in the last two and a half years than ever before for the state of Utah. I think all of us working together will resolve that.”
