Tenants near wit's end at 1263 First Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids

I walked into the building this afternoon, hoping maybe to talk to the property manager. A large white man was sitting on the steps inside.

"How you doing?" I asked.

"Fine, you?" he said.

"You the property manager?" I asked.

"No," he said.

"Is the property manager here?" I asked.

"No," he said.

"Is the property manager ever here?" I asked.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm a reporter at The Gazette," I said.

He looked at me.

"Please do a story," he said.

It turns out the front door's lock has been broken for more than a month, the window on the back door is busted out, and someone has broken into one apartment and tried to break into another in the past two weeks.

The man I was speaking to was tall and bald, with an earing in his left ear and a deliberate way of speaking. His name was Eric Sorensen.

His apartment was the one that was almost broken into, and the evidence is clear. The door is splintered, and he had to wait Friday afternoon for more than an hour while a locksmith came to help him open the broken door.

Sorensen's neighbor, Brian Blakely, caught the would-be burglar in the act, before the thief bolted out the back of the building. That was a week after Blakely's apartment had been jacked.

The same guy, Blakely says, busted open his door, stole his rent money, $1,000 worth of video games, shoes, and a camera. To add insult to injury, the burglar stole a Wendy's salad and half a jug of orange juice out of the refrigerator.

"How you gonna take some open f---ing juice?" Blakely said.

More seriously, Sewania Stokes, who lives with Blakely said:

"It feels like everything's been ripped out of you. You're scared to be in your place. It feels like you have to watch your back at all times. It's supposed to be a secure building, and it's not secure."

In fact, neither the front nor back outside door was repaired after Blakely's apartment was burglarized. Blakely and Stokes plan to move by the first of November.

The place has problems other than security. Hampton Courts is actually two apartment buildings - 1261 and 1263 First Ave. SE. I've got them listed separately on the map, but the two buildings are next door to each other, they both have 18 units and they're owned by the same guy.

Police were called to one of the two buildings 279 times in 2008. That's more than five times a week. The company that owns the buildings is called simply 1261-1263 LLC, which was incorporated by James D. Houghton. Houghton lists an Iowa City home address.

In August, an inspection of the building at 1263 revealed 67 violations. Chipped, peeling paint, no numbers on apartment doors, holes in the ceiling, smoke detectors not working, no flooring under the kitchen sink or bathroom vanities in one unit, broken light fixtures, leaky faucets.

Blakely says there's worse. His bathtub would back up every month, and the last time it was stuck for three months. He was at an impasse with Eagle Property Management for three months before a code inspector ordered the manager to fix the plumbing. Cockroaches and spiders are always around. The buildings are heated through the steam system, which was knocked out by the flood, and the conversion to central heat won't happen for at least another two months -- the middle of December at the earliest.

The property manager has provided tenants with small black space heaters. Blakely considers his totally inadequate.

"That motherf---er look like a blender," he said. "It's gonna be cold as hell with them little things."

I'm still working on a story about problem properties, and still looking for ideas and input. Please send me an e-mail at adam.belz@gazcomm.com