WEST VALLEY CITY — Dozens of disadvantaged senior citizens met with the West Valley City mayor and the Salt Lake County Housing Authority on Wednesday morning for a summer breakfast celebration.

The elderly folks live in one of just a handful of public senior-housing projects in the Salt Lake Valley. The Valley Fair Village complex is located just off 3500 South near 3100 West. Its red-rust brick apartments are surrounded by bright roses, white wooden fences, a healthy lawn and dozens of mature trees.

Nothing about the complex, including its friendly residents, shout of the ills often associated with public housing.

The area is free of graffiti, and plumbing issues are taken care of immediately, said Carol Jones, who sat shyly with her miniature dog during the breakfast.

Jones and her dog, Baby, were forced from a mobile-home complex in West Jordan when lot rents exceeded $400 per month, she said.

"This is one of the nicest places to live," said Carolos Aguirre, a Chilean native who moved to Utah after a career in New York City's public schools.

Aguirre, like many of his low-income neighbors, was on the waiting list for the Valley Fair Village for eight months. The complex is federally funded through the Housing and Urban Development department, which also offers affordable housing vouchers to low-income families and the homeless.

Aguirre pays one-third of his income for his one-bedroom apartment. A tenant association within the project also pays for things such as a continental breakfast every Saturday morning, said county housing authority director Sherrie Rico.

Following a hearty breakfast, residents and volunteers from General Electric Bank planted annual flowers and vegetables in the tiny gardens of Valley Fair Village residents.

The bank has volunteered at the complex for 15 years, though employees do not get community reinvestment credit for their work, said bank volunteer coordinator Meira Renwick.

While juggling an interview with Deseret News and overseeing dozens of snapdragon plantings, Renwick recognized an elderly resident by name and stooped to her knees to place a squash seedling in the rich soil next to his unit.

Meanwhile, resident Robert Clarke shared a recipe for baked jalapenos and cream cheese and gushed over the beauty of his home of four years.

Similarly, Rico sang the praises of the project, saying housing managers under her vie to oversee Valley Fair Village.

"There's a lot of immigrants here," she said. "They were probably living with family. But now they get their owns homes, a place for their family to come and visit. It gives them independence and makes them feel young again, being among their own friends."

E-MAIL: rpalmer@desnews.com