When the new owners of the apartment building at 215 East St. in Hobart came before the Board of Works in June, they told the body that “the outside and inside will have a different feel.”

The statement was music to ears of city administrators. Anything that started to erase the memory of July 12, 2022 — when the city shut down the 100-year-old, 11-unit building after Hobart Firefighters conducted a wellness check and found on an elderly woman living in a boarded-up basement room July 11 — was great, but making it a place where people can live comfortably was even better, the board agreed.

For the residents who had only 13 hours to leave their homes — and in several cases, their belongings since the presence of mold hung heavily throughout the building, among other health hazards — knowing the place they called “home” is likely going to be a place they’ll never be able to afford is bittersweet.

The Post-Tribune caught up with six people who are tied to that day — those who were forced to leave expressed trauma, distrust and anger at building owner Joseph D. Gore, a Valparaiso realtor and contractor, while those who helped the families saw hope and community.

‘Gore out; Preferred in’

According to records filed with the Lake County Recorder’s office, Gore, doing business as Glenwood Properties LLC, bought 215 East St. from Jeff Greener in November 2019 for $419,000, taking out a mortgage of $364,000 on the building with Kentland, Indiana-based Kentland Bank Nov. 14, 2019. On May 30, Pontiac, Illinois-based Bank of Pontiac issued a $874,000 mortgage to Highland-based East Apartments LLC for 215 East St.

That same day, Glenwood Properties paid off the $364,000 mortgage with Kentland Bank, records show, though it’s unclear how much — or even if — Gore profited from the sale.

East Apartments LLC is a subsidiary of Preferred Homes LLC of Highland, said East Apartments representative David Boyce, who came before the Hobart Board of Works June 7 instead of Gore, who the board had ordered to appear to give a status update. Boyce at that meeting told the board his group is “very aware” of the problems the building had and issues they need to fix, but they’ve done a lot of projects in Hobart and are eager “put the problems to rest.”

The board told Boyce that he and his crew would have to complete the items that Gore — who previously told the tenants he was “going to do whatever the insurance company allows” him to do to make them feel better, the Post-Tribune reported previously — didn’t do before they would be allowed to start remodeling the building. Hobart Building Official Karen Hansen said earlier this month that East Apartments had completed the list.

The Post-Tribune contacted Jeremy McDonald, an attorney out of South Bend who’s representing Gore in the lawsuit the tenants filed against him, for comment from Gore or him on Gore’s behalf. Neither responded by deadline.

‘13 hours’

Lorraine Guillen-Wentz and Tim Wentz pulled in from Tim’s mother’s funeral July 12 to sight emergency vehicles lined up in the parking lot and people running in and out of the building.

Already worn down by the sadness of the day, Guillen-Wentz said she approached Hansen and asked what was going on, to no avail. The couple went inside their apartment to change clothes, and she went back to find Hansen again, she said. This time, Hansen had an answer for her.

The building in which she and Wentz lived for eight years was to be evacuated in 13 hours due to unsafe conditions, Guillen-Wentz said Hansen told her; they would be posting the signage announcing the closure later that day.

As the panic and dread set in, she remembers seeing Councilmen Mark Kopil, D-1, and Josh Huddlestun, D-2, on the scene pretty much immediately; Hobart Mayor Brian Snedecor and other town administrators arrived later that afternoon to assess the situation, she said. Guillen-Wentz congregated outside with her family and neighbors wondering what to do as Wentz rested from the funeral inside.

“He just buried his mom — he was in shock,” Guillen-Wentz said.

After a week in a hotel paid for through the efforts of Hobart Township Board President Joe Clemmons and citizen donations, Guillen-Wentz set out to look for a new place for her and Wentz. It wasn’t easy because of special considerations.

“Tim suffered a major heart attack and is disabled, so I had to think about things like, ‘Is it disability friendly, and is it safe for us? Were Tim’s health issues because of what we were exposed to?’ ” she said. “I didn’t want to be on the first floor, either, because what if it floods? Is it safe? And what about a new landlord? Is he going to be cooperative or like Gore and not care at all?”

As well, Wentz’s health precluded him from doing much in the way of the actual moving, Guillen-Wentz said, so most of the logistics and physical labor fell to her and her family, though they didn’t take much of their furniture because they were worried it was contaminated with mold.

“We’d bought a $4,000 treadmill for Tim’s rehab that we couldn’t take. Wonder what (Gore) did with it?” Guillen-Wentz said. “We’d just paid off our furniture, and shoes! I had 50-some pairs of shoes that I left behind because I didn’t know what they were contaminated with.”

Guillen-Wentz initially found them a small apartment in Hobart, but it was a short-term lease, and they had to move a second time in six months. Shortly before she began the apartment hunt, a friend of hers, Chicago Fitness owner Mario Daklalla, mentioned he had an apartment available in one of his buildings and did she know anyone who might want it.

She took the hint, and she and Tim have been there ever since.

“(Daklalla) is like (former 215 East St. Owner) Jeff Greener: He’s right there to fix things or have them fixed,” Guillen-Wentz said. “He’s been so good to us, and I can’t thank him enough.”

Their comfort has come with a hefty price, however. After paying $800 in rent for years at 215 East St., their rent is now more than $200 what they were paying, though utilities are included. With Wentz taking his Social Security early, Guillen-Wentz said money is always a struggle.

They also had to repurchase all-new furniture, which has put them back in debt, she said.

Guillen-Wentz said she’s grateful for the help the community gave her, Wentz and the rest of the 24 people who were left homeless that day, but the trauma is bigger than the support in many ways.

“It’s changed a part of my character and a big part of the way I think. I’m angry, and if it wasn’t for my faith in God, I would be a lot angrier,” she said. “The community was great to us, but then after a few weeks, it dropped off, and that was hard to take.

“Am I in a better place now? Absolutely, but it still bothers me to know what we went through, and it’s hard for me to trust. I’ve literally thought about therapy to make sense of it and get it all out.”

‘People need to be harder on landlords’

Angela Ruiz laughs at it now, but a year ago, she tried to clean the apartment she, her husband and stepdaughter were told to evacuate within 13 hours. She said she didn’t know what else to do.

“We did what we could because I was taught to leave things better than we found them,” Ruiz said. “I thought to myself, ‘Why am I doing this?’ but I felt it was my responsibility. I would never leave a place trashed or dirty.”

Ruiz told the Post-Tribune previously that she and her husband moved into the building in January 2022 from Virginia Beach, Virginia, she said. Pictures she’d taken and texts she’d sent to Gore showed a place — for which they were paying $975 a month plus a $75 “maintenance fee” — that was filthy and riddled with hypodermic needles and rug and floor burns from the previous tenant.

A month after they’d moved in, Ruiz told the Post-Tribune she started having problems breathing, so she asked former 215 East St. Manager Hailee Stover for new furnace filters. Stover initially said she would get them but never did, Ruiz said.

“I was the biggest complainer in that building, but he still never listened to me,” Ruiz said. “More and more landlords just don’t care.”

After staying in the hotel city officials set up for them, Ruiz and her husband tried to stay in a less-expensive extended-stay motel until they could get their bearings and maybe save a little money. They lasted 2 1/2 weeks.

“It was awful. I told my husband, “I can’t do this,’ ” she said. “My husband said, ‘As old as we are, we have no place to live.’ We learned the hard way — we’re homeless.”

The Ruizes found a different apartment in Hobart, but like the Wentzes, it’s come at a price. The apartment they’re in is located in a busier part of town, is smaller and is $300 more than what they were paying at 215 East, she said.

“It was like, oh my gosh, again? We just went through this, and we had to start all over — new couch, new bedroom set. We had to dip into our retirement to pay deposits,” she said. “It’s traumatizing, all the moving and loss of things.”

She too is grateful for the help from the community and said that’s what keeps her going most days — that and the idea of getting their own house. They tried looking for a house but couldn’t find one they could afford, however, so they just resigned their lease, she said.

She hopes it’ll be the last time she has to sign one.

“I think people need to be harder on landlords — like, there needs to be jail time,” Ruiz said. “What we went through is a crime. That’s how I feel.”

Indiana has few tenant protections

Indiana is typically in the top 20 of states that are landlord-friendly, a designation measured by eviction laws, low property tax rates, no rent control and relatively lax standards for to which landlords must adhere, according to website ipropertmanagement.com (https://ipropertymanagement.com/laws/indiana-landlord-tenant-rights). As far as standards go, Indiana landlords are required to provide only hot water, heat, garbage removal and smoke detectors, and they must remediate mold and take care of pest control, according to the site, though pest control doesn’t currently include bed bugs, which State Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, has tried to rectify in a bill that would require landlords to handle them but it failed to leave committee for two straight years.

Landlords must also perform repairs in a “timely manner” after a tenant gives them written notice, generally within two weeks, the site said. If they don’t, a tenant can sue for cost or get a court order to force the landlord to make them, and the landlord can’t retaliate in any way.

For their part, tenants must pay their rent, but they must also “keep the living space free from hazards and garbage; maintain appliances and keep them in working order; use facilities and appliances in a reasonable manner; abide by cleanliness standards; comply with all rules and regulations in the rental agreement; not deface, damage, or destroy any part of the rental unit; not disturb other tenants or neighbors; and maintain smoke detectors,” the site reads. If a tenant breaches one or more of those items, a landlord may issue a “Notice to Cure or Vacate”; if the tenant neither fixes the problem nor leaves the premises, the landlord can start eviction proceedings.

If a tenant fails to pay rent, the landlord can issue a 10-day notice to pay, according to the site. If the tenant doesn’t pay after that, the landlord can evict.

Additionally, if a tenant stays beyond the lease term without signing a new lease, the landlord must give notice to leave the property, the site said. For those who’re month-to-month, the landlord would give 30 days; those on an annual lease would be given 90 days. Illegal acts by tenants, meanwhile, will get a 45-day notice to quit, and it’s the landlord’s discretion as to what’s “illegal.”

‘It was embarrassing’

Sharon Wrenn drives by 215 East on her way to work at one of the schools in the city, and she sees workers fixing it up. She’s sure it’ll be wonderful when it’s done.

Maybe then, people will forget that she lived there when the city shut it down. She really hopes it will, because even though she feels like she’s moved on from the ordeal mostly, there are still some aspects that sting.

“People were very nice, but to have the people you work with know that, ‘Oh wow, you lived in that place?’ It was embarrassing,” Wrenn said. “And it all happened at a time when my car had been totaled, so I was bumming rides off everyone I could.”

Wrenn was able to move in with one of her daughters and her family, she said, but the adage about houseguests and fish became very true very quickly, and tensions ran hot for much of her stay.

“We’re all fine now, but I really felt like a burden, because I didn’t want to have to be there. It was a sad situation,” she said.

Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.