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UDOT buys homes to make way for I-15 widening, but neighbors say vacant houses bring squatters, drugs, graffiti

Midvale • Spencer Mears noticed homeless folk started wandering his neighborhood last summer when the Utah Department of Transportation began buying up homes — and leaving them vacant — for an upcoming project to widen Interstate 15.

“I see people pushing grocery baskets or on bikes that have all their stuff packed on them as they go through the area,” he says. Police say many have outstanding arrest warrants or drug problems, and try to squat in the vacant boarded-up houses.

That’s not to mention the graffiti and vandalism that has hit not only the vacant homes, but some that are occupied.