And the landlord is Salt Lake City.

The paint is peeling, the roofs leak and bugs are rampant at the three buildings known collectively as the Regis and Windsor hotels, 253 S. State St.

Across the street from a Marriott Hotel and new penthouses, the structures embarrass Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and City Council members, who want to tear them down to make way for tony housing and commercial projects.

While unsightly, the hotels are home to 85 men and women - day laborers, retirees and the formerly homeless who can afford the $80-a-week rent. The city pledges to find them new homes once the buildings are demolished. But the eventual loss of those rooms - along with another 52 slots after last week's fire at the Stratford Hotel nearby - concerns advocates for low-income residents.

The city has no discernible plan to increase the number of single-room occupancy (SRO) units, though it has known for more than a decade it needs to. In addition, the City Council won't fund such affordable-rent projects because it hasn't adopted its housing policy, which it could discuss in September. And an ordinance five years in the making that would guide SRO development still awaits council approval.

"We've been fiddle-farting for 15 years," said Tim Funk, housing-project director for Crossroads Urban Center. "Salt Lake City has known they've had a need and they've spent years talking about it and done little or nothing."

SROs are considered short-term housing, though some renters stay for years. The rooms are small (up to 500 square feet with shared bathrooms) and can be rented by the week. SROs support minimum-wage service workers and the elderly. Often, tenants come from homelessness and, as Funk says, teeter on the edge of homelessness.

Steve Fischer has lived at the Regis for four years and works as a security guard there for his rent. "It's centrally located. It's cheap, about the cheapest place in town," he said, explaining his long stay. "I don't drive [and] the bus is right here. It's the original adult day care."

Mirroring a national trend, several SRO buildings in Salt Lake City decayed, were derided as flophouses and were demolished. The city had about 800 units in the late 1970s, then 500 a decade later. A 1989 study warned SROs were headed toward "extinction."

A few years later, the number of SRO units had dropped to 300. The city's Redevelopment Agency Board - which is City Council - studied the issue in 2000 and issued a report calling for the RDA to buy land to be developed into SROs.

But Councilwoman Nancy Saxton lobbied against funding SROs, saying they're too expensive to build and that she would rather see housing projects that mix income levels. She suggested the council support renovating run-down motels on State Street in the middle of the city.

"Nothing has happened with that," Saxton said.

Councilman Eric Jergensen, chairman of the RDA Board, wasn't aware of the SRO study - he was elected a year after it was released. "Maybe we haven't met the specified goal of that 2000 [report]. We are going to follow through because we know of the need."

The RDA started buying the State Street SROs and now is headed toward tearing them down. Jergensen said demolition is at least a year away.

The mayor and City Council haven't decided what type of mixed-use project will replace the structures. But in the meantime, the city could demolish two of the buildings and consolidate tenants into the Regis.

Anderson said he supports SRO housing, but ones that are a "credit to our city. These structures on State Street are dilapidated. They're extremely unsightly. If we're going to be successful in the revitalization of our downtown, areas like that need to be rehabilitated."

The 2000 RDA study actually called for renovating the Regis and the Stratford, but that was never done. Last week, one of the Stratford tenants was charged with starting a fire at the hotel at 169 E. 200 South. Fire Department officials say the hotel could be rebuilt, but owner James Wright was unsure if he could, saying he was "going to try."

Between the Stratford fire and the demolishment of the State Street SROs, the city would lose 200 units. The mayor and City Council members point to two projects they say make up the difference.

The recently built Liberty Metro apartments near City Hall have 100 studio apartments for low-wage workers. But not all the units would be within SRO renters' price range. And another 100-unit complex is planned, with an $800,000 loan from the RDA, to help men transition from homelessness. The latter would include social services, while most SROs don't.

Matt Minkevitch, executive director of The Road Home homeless shelter, applauds those two projects, but said they are not enough.

"Those are two steps forward. To lose the Regis and the Windsor would be two steps back. In the end I don't see progress," he said.

Meantime, the need for SRO housing is growing. Andy Sipple, who manages the Regis and Windsor, said laborers who will work on the LDS Church's downtown mall redevelopment will want to rent single rooms.

James Wright, the Stratford Hotel owner who also owns SROs at The Annex at 150 E. South Temple, said developers have approached him to buy out his prime South Temple property - but he has resisted.

"We're running full all the time and we're turning people away," he said. "There is a demand for that type of building."

hmay@sltrib.com