Utah Valley University
- A Utah landlord evicted an 18-year-old woman after she described suicidal thoughts to her roommates, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
- The woman received a letter alleging she had violated the terms of her lease by interfering with her roommates’ “quiet enjoyment” of their apartment and committing “recklessly [sic] endangerment of human life, assault, harassment, nuisance, disturbance of the peace.”
- The woman told The Salt Lake Tribune she has contacted the building’s management but has not received a response.
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A Utah landlord evicted an 18-year-old woman from her student-housing apartment after she shared suicidal thoughts with her roommates, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. The newspaper didn’t disclose the woman’s name because she requested anonymity due to the story’s sensitive subject matter.
The landlord reportedly placed the eviction letter on the woman’s door on October 13. The woman, who is now living with a friend, described the landlord’s actions as “hurtful” to The Salt Lake Tribune.
“The landlord is telling me not to live here because I was having suicidal thoughts,” she told the newspaper. “That’s not something I can help. And it’s just hurtful.”
The woman told The Salt Lake Tribune she’s had depression since her mother’s death in September 2018. Academic and coronavirus-related stress exacerbated her symptoms, she told the newspaper, leading her to discuss her emotional state, including her suicidal thoughts, with her roommates three weeks before she received the eviction notice. The roommates dismissed her concerns, a family friend of the woman’s told The Salt Lake Tribune, and the woman became more isolated.
The landlord’s letter, a photo of which The Sale Lake Tribune includes in its story, suggests the woman’s roommates told the building’s management about the mental-health struggles she had described. The letter alleges the woman had violated the terms of her lease, citing rules against interfering with her roommates’ “quiet enjoyment” of their apartment or committing “any recklessly [sic] endangerment of human life, assault, harassment, nuisance, disturbance of the peace.”
"We have been made aware that you have vocalized suicidal tendencies which has caused undo [sic] stress and alarm to your roommates," the letter said.
The woman told The Salt Lake Tribune she has contacted the building's management but has not received a response.
A representative at Utah Valley University, which the woman had attended before dropping her classes, told The Salt Lake Tribune that the school felt for the woman but couldn't address the situation because it doesn't own or operate the building she lived in.
Ventana Student Housing, which owns the building the woman was evicted from, did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.