Out in the cold

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OGDEN -- Daniel Geary is hoping for a holiday miracle.

Surrounded by boxes and plastic bags containing his meager belongings, Geary sat Friday afternoon in the living room of his dingy duplex at 339 18th St., wondering out loud where his family would spend Christmas.

He had been ordered Nov. 8 by his landlord, Todd Stanger, to vacate, by Nov. 30, the duplex, which will be sold to California businessman Gadi Leshem to make way for the city's Ogden River Project, but Geary managed to remain a couple of extra weeks.

Geary is worried because he has been unable to find a new place to live for himself; his 7-year-old daughter, Makayla; his 8-year-old son, Mykkel; his 34-year-old girlfriend, Wendy Adams; and her 14-year-old son, Travis.

"It's been really stressful and hectic," said Geary, whose only income is a $1,200 monthly medical disability check.

"I've been worried from day to day. I can't live like this. My kids can't be put out on the street."

Geary is keeping his fingers crossed that Stanger will put his family up in a motel for a week or so while he negotiates a deal to possibly move into another duplex being marketed by a friend who works in real estate.

Geary is angry he's being forced to move during the holidays because it may be a couple of years before construction starts on the second phase of the Ogden River Project.

"It's ridiculous," he said.

Wendy Adams is more blunt in her assessment regarding why she and some of her low-income neighbors, who also rent from Stanger, are being forced to move.

"We are like rock-bottom people," she said. "We struggle to survive."

She isn't impressed with Leshem's plans to begin construction in 2009 of a 60-acre retail and residential development, called Renaissance Village, as part of the river project's second phase.

Leshem could not be reached for comment.

The boundaries for the second phase extend from the north bank of the Ogden River at Kiesel Avenue to Lincoln Avenue, north to 18th Street, and on the south bank of the river south to 20th Street, from Grant to Lincoln avenues.

There are 114 properties in the first and second phases of the river project. The city has bought 40 parcels in the initial phase, which is under development, and five in the second phase.

Leshem has arranged to acquire 16 parcels on his own, and the city has transferred purchase options for 38 other parcels to him, Ogden Community and Economic Development Director Dave Harmer has said.

Leshem has closed on 16 of the options.

Stanger said in a phone interview Friday that he planned to finalize on Nov. 12 the sale of six homes and a duplex he owns along 18th Street and on Kiesel Avenue to Leshem, but was unable to complete the transaction because tenants hadn't moved out.

Stanger also said it has been tough to make mortgage payments on the properties because he has been letting tenants live in the dwellings rent-free for more than a month.

"I can only do so much," he said, adding that he sympathizes with renters.

Stanger declined to disclose how much Leshem will pay him for the properties when the sales are complete in the next few weeks, but said he will be glad to get rid of the dwellings.

"I don't want to deal with them anymore."

Fay Maldonado, 41, lived in one of Stanger's houses, 1817 Kiesel Ave., until she was forced to move about two weeks ago.

Maldonado returns to the boarded-up house each day to feed her cat, Checkers, who stayed behind, and to try to figure out a way to retrieve her washer, refrigerator and other appliances that are inside.

She said she believes city officials and developers involved in the river project are not concerned with her plight or that of her neighbors.

"It's all about the money."

However, Richard McConkie, the city's deputy director of community and economic development, said a goal of the river project is to eliminate substandard housing downtown.

"Homeowners and tenants should be in better housing in better neighborhoods."

McConkie said the city is not providing relocation assistance for renters in the area.

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