A Salt Lake City mental health provider says it stopped admitting new clients to its intensive outpatient program after a construction dispute with its landlord left it unable to promise that treatment wouldn't be interrupted. Hadfield said in an October 21 email that the pause had then lasted about a month, and that roughly a dozen people seeking care had been waitlisted or turned away by then.
Hadfield founded Hearten House, which provides mental health services using art, movement and other experiential therapies, and the organization moved into the historic Oquirrh School earlier this year, subleasing the third floor at 350 S. 400 East from the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City. According to FOX 13 News Utah, Hadfield said she needed a clear construction plan and timeline before she could promise clients their treatment wouldn't be disrupted, and that admitting people without guaranteed confidentiality, safety and continuity would be unethical and unsafe. The Housing Authority is Hearten House's landlord, and the two parties agreed under their written agreement to share one room, which the Housing Authority also has the right to use for board meetings.
A Contractor Walk-In Sparks the Standoff
Hadfield said two contractors entered the shared room on September 22 while she was alone inside preparing to record a course, despite the door being marked occupied, the station's report states. She said a contractor returned on another occasion while she was preparing a client for a trauma therapy session. Hadfield told the outlet the contractors said they planned to gut the room and remodel a kitchen for the Housing Authority — a characterization Nackerman disputes, describing the planned work instead as minor.
In an October 21 email reviewed by the outlet, Hadfield told the Housing Authority that Hearten House had paused admissions for a month because it still lacked clear answers about the construction timeline and scope. The intensive outpatient program typically lasts eight to 16 weeks, and clients already participating were allowed to finish, per the same account. Hadfield and Syd Sneddon, Hearten House's director of programming and experiences, estimated that about a dozen people seeking the program have been placed on a waitlist or turned away.
Landlord Calls It a Minor Lease Dispute
Daniel Nackerman, executive director of the Housing Authority of Salt Lake City, responded to the outlet by characterizing the situation as a minor lease dispute. He said Hearten House had agreed to share the room and was refusing to honor the lease. In his October 21 email, Nackerman said the shared room would be scheduled carefully and remodeled “soon,” though he did not provide a specific construction date, and he suggested a lease addendum describing a scheduling system.
Sneddon said some people seeking the program were leaving inpatient care and looking for additional support, though she noted she was not part of the admissions team and could not say exactly what each person had been told. Hadfield said no remodeling had actually occurred as of her account, and that she is waiting for a clear construction plan and timeline before deciding what comes next for the practice. She said she had lost people to addiction and mental health concerns, underscoring what she described as the stakes of the delay.
Building Backdrop and Unanswered Questions
The Housing Authority of Salt Lake City had signed a lease to take over the Oquirrh School building and move into it, according to Building Salt Lake. Separately, a listing on ConstructConnect shows the Housing Authority solicited bids for an interior remodel of its new main office on the Oquirrh School's main floor, including a new lobby, offices, electrical work, workstations, carpet and paint. That listing does not establish whether the main-floor work is the same project at issue in the shared-room dispute.
Hadfield said she contacted FOX 13 News Utah after seeing its earlier reporting on problems at senior housing properties managed by the Housing Authority. The agency did not respond to the outlet's additional questions about the contractors or the construction timeline. It remains unclear whether admissions have since resumed or whether the shared room has been remodeled.
