USU student asked to leave Oakridge Apartments following mental health issues

Olivia was not evicted from Oakridge. She was asked to leave.

Olivia Larsen has lived in Logan while attending Utah State University for four years, staying at Oakridge for the last two. Like many other students, Olivia struggles with her mental health. When she was 18, Olivia was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was later diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder.

In February, Olivia could feel her depression getting worse. “I wasn’t feeling suicidal at the time,” she said, “but I could feel it coming.”

So, Olivia did what she was supposed to do: she asked a roommate to give her a ride to the emergency room. After talking to the people at the ER, she was sent home. Olivia said her roommate seemed bothered on the drive home.

“But she didn’t say anything to me about it,” Olivia said, “and she said that she was happy to do it.”

The next morning, Olivia felt worse, but instead of asking her roommates to drive her to the hospital, she drove herself. The hospital wouldn’t admit her, but they suggested she stay at her brother’s house in Ogden and then go to her parents’ house in Orem. Shortly after Olivia left Logan, her mother received a couple calls from Tilisa Lapuaho, one of the managers at Oakridge. Lapuaho informed her that Olivia’s roommates wanted to have a mediation meeting. Although Olivia was confused why they wanted a meeting, she agreed to attend.

“I tried going on a walk right after that. And I couldn’t get it out of my head,” Olivia said through tears. “I could sense that the relationship I had with my roommates wasn’t okay at that point, and I started to plan to kill myself. I’ve never done that before.”

And for the first time, Olivia wasn’t afraid of her suicidal thoughts.

On Feb. 11, Olivia’s mother drove her to McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden, where Olivia was admitted and stayed until Feb. 15. The mediation meeting scheduled with her roommates, Lapuaho and Olivia’s therapist was cancelled because electronics weren’t allowed in the psych unit of the hospital. But Olivia was able to call Oakridge and her roommates and update them on her situation in the hospital. She figured if her roommates were concerned, keeping them informed would help ease their worries.

While Olivia was in the hospital, her father received a call from the regional manager for the Oakridge Student Housing Community, Margaret Nay, who said Olivia was not welcome back at Oakridge. Her father asked Nay three times if they were evicting Olivia, to which Nay replied, “No, but I will if she doesn’t leave.”

When reached by the Utah Statesman for comment, Nay said “no one has been evicted from Oakridge Student Housing due to mental health reasons.”

According to Olivia’s parents, Oakridge managers claim Olivia was in breach of contract, specifically noting a line in her contract which says “Resident agrees that the conduct of Resident, his guests or other occupants shall not be disorderly, boisterous or unlawful and shall not disturb the rights, comforts, or convenience of other persons.” According to Olivia’s father, Nay emphasized the word “comforts” and said Olivia’s mental health struggles were putting stress on her roommates.

Jacob Gordon, an attorney with the Cache County Attorney’s Office who is available for students through USUSA legal services, said the diction in this contract is unusual; it begs the question, “what constitutes impinging on the comfort of another person?” Gordon explained that Oakridge’s contract “would be better if they had a definition in the contract, identifying what constitutes impinging on the comfort of another person. In the absence of that, it is vague.”

Olivia and her family didn’t feel the need to go through with a formal eviction. It was clear after her struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts, she was unwelcome at Oakridge. But, for Olivia, being informally evicted from Oakridge wasn’t the worst part.
While she was in the hospital, a psych unit receptionist relayed a message to Olivia from one of her roommates saying “I don’t want Olivia to contact me again.”

“I don’t know what I did to elicit that response,” Olivia said. “I don’t know what I did.”

According to several suidical prevention websites, one should make their home environment safe by sharing their feelings with people they can trust. For Olivia, those people were her roommates.

At Olivia’s request, her roommates will stay anonymous. She did not provide their contact information for comment.

Olivia believes her roommates didn’t know how to handle her mental state, so they turned to Oakridge management instead of communicating directly with her.

“They could have told me ‘I can’t do this for you’ and I would have been fine with that” Olivia said. “I just needed support.”

“We were friends,” Olivia tearfully explained. “Maybe I misunderstood our friendship.”

Olivia explained everything in this situation would have been better if her roommates had communicated to her directly.

“There’s something wrong with the idea of asking people when they feel suicidal to reach out, and then kicking them out when they do,” Olivia said. “I don’t believe they’re bad people. I believe they made a mistake.”

Olivia has since dropped her classes at USU to focus on her mental health and adjust to her new medications. She is currently living with her parents in Orem and will be starting classes at UVU in the fall.

Emily White is a junior studying English and broadcast journalism. She is currently serving as the senior writer for the Lifestyles section of the Statesman.

—emily.white@usu.edu