Ma Tha Win harvested peppers from her garden, offering a couple to a reporter.

Sin Maung, a tenant, told The World-Herald through a translator that the owner inspected a broken fan but never fixed it. It’s been unworkable for four years, he said.

“Everything is broken,” he said of his unit. “Everywhere is broken."

The man said he is from Burma, but fled to Malaysia. He’s been in Omaha for nine years and works at an area Cargill facility.

Franklin Thompson, the director of the city’s Human Rights and Relations Department, Thompson said the city and social service agencies are concerned about displacing already-fragile families who are still adjusting to a new life in America.

“A lot of them have gone through warfare and then they’ve spent years in resettlement and then now taking them out (of their homes) again looks like they’re going to go through this for a third or a fourth time,” he said. “So it’s important to me that we handle this with delicate care.”