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Pete Henderson's growing frustration finally boiled over last week when his 29-year-old son, Ian, was smacked around by some homeless men as he tried to stop them from bothering customers on the outside patio of the Rio Grande Cafe.
"I've had it," he says. "The homeless problem is out of control, and I don't know how they can fix it."
The popular restaurant has been serving up Mexican cuisine to customers since 1981, when Henderson rented space in the old state-owned Rio Grande Depot.
The Road Home homeless shelter opened later just down the street, with plans for 175 beds. Through the years, it has expanded its capacity to more than 1,000.
The shelter's wintertime population can hit 1,500, Henderson says. "And that doesn't even count the St. Vincent de Paul overflow shelter across the street."
The area surrounding his restaurant teems with hordes of homeless wanderers, he adds. Panhandlers sometimes come into the restaurant and go table to table asking customers for money.
When employees try to shoo them out, he says, they sometimes get assaulted. Vandalism to customers' and employees' cars is getting intolerable.
Henderson says his son's fiancée, who keeps the company's books, recently bought a brand-new Volkswagen, only to have it smashed up by someone with a crowbar while it was parked near the restaurant.
"It's getting harder and harder to keep my employees," Henderson says. "Some of them have been with me for 25 years, but the situation has gotten impossible."
He's losing loyal diners as well. "People are telling me, 'Pete, I love your restaurant, but I just can come anymore.' "
Because of the homeless mess, he says, his business is down 50 percent from five years ago.
"I've talked to every mayor since Palmer DePaulis," he says, referring to the Salt Lake City chief executive who served in the late 1980s and early 1990s. "I've talked to [Police Chief] Mike Brown. I've talked to [Salt Lake County Sheriff] Jim Winder, to the City Council, to [Salt Lake County Mayor] Ben McAdams. It just keeps getting worse."
The homeless camp in the parking strips and wherever else there is grass around the restaurant. He says the area is unsanitary.
"If I could," Henderson says, "I'd sue Salt Lake City for creating a public nuisance."
After seemingly contentious disagreements and mistrust between Mayor Jackie Biskupski and the City Council, city officials appear to have come together on a deal to build smaller shelters in other parts of the city to alleviate the crowding at The Road Home.
Police have stepped up efforts to rid the area of drug addicts and dealers. Two dragnets in the past week have taken about 90 people gathered around the shelter off the streets — either to treatment centers or to jail.
Henderson has a decision to make. It's time for him to renew his lease with the state for five more years. If conditions don't improve, he isn't sure he can stay.