All Sheena Garwood can do now is wait.

On Friday, she stood inside her former home in the condemned KC apartments, amid dry foods in airtight bins on the floor, where the food had been stored because cockroaches invaded the cabinets.

Garwood and her fiance, Tommy Eshelman, packed all their food and belongings, preparing to leave the shuttered complex. Together with their three kids, the family is moving into Garwood's mom's home until they can find another place to live.

They are five of the estimated 100 people being displaced by the city's order to vacate KC Apartments. The surprise move came a week after inspectors found dozens of fire code violations in the building.

The couple is waiting to hear back from Cottonwood Estates in Paradise Valley about their housing application, which they said they filed early Friday morning.

"They only let certain people in. We're not in for sure yet but we're hoping," Garwood said. "Everywhere we're going the credit check is becoming a problem. The [rental agent] seems like she's really cool though...

"I can't tell you how many times I've prayed today."

Many of their neighbors are mad the city is forcing them out of their homes, Eshelman said. There's an attitude among residents that the city doesn't understand how difficult it is to find affordable housing in Casper.

"I care about my kids, and some people around here, they're all upset about this," Eshelman said of some of his neighbors. "They like to live ghetto. I don't."

Angry complaints against the city underscore a steady stream of glowing reviews from tenants about the building's owner, John Phipps. Tenants have brushed aside concerns about fire hazards because Phipps is willing to "work with" them on rent and security deposits.

Eshelman and Garwood are in the same boat -- stuck at KC because that's what they could find, not because it's what they want. They chalk their current situation to being stupid when they were younger and destroying their credit before they could establish themselves.

She bounced a series of checks when she thought a boyfriend deposited money into an account and didn't, and he didn't pay a hospital bill because he was young and didn't care. They both missed phone and cable bills and let everything go to collections.

"We're just two people who were stupid when we were younger, gave ourselves bad credit, and now that we're older and have children, we're struggling, trying to pay for it," Garwood said. "I'm trying to bump the education up a little bit so I can make some more money, so I'm not stuck in situations like this."

A housing voucher softens the blow a little bit, Garwood explained, but it's difficult to make a dent in the debt. Garwood is about two-thirds of the way through beauty school. Eshelman is looking for work, but has been collecting unemployment in the mean time. When Garwood finishes in January, Eshelman said he planned on getting his commercial driver's license.

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Justin Smith, an inspector with the Casper Fire Department, pointed to a fatal apartment fire in New York that happened just before KC's inspection as a cautionary tale for apartments with poor or malfunctioning fire alarms.

Four people died and 16 were left homeless by the blaze, according to The Associated Press, and the fire alarm system wasn't working in the building. That building was about one-third of the size of the KC complex, and had one-fifth of the residents.

"The lack of alarm and detection devices causes the occupants to have less of a chance to be alerted, whether in the unit or adjacent to it," Smith said. "You combine that further with compromised exiting and it builds on itself."

City officials continue to point to fire hazards as an imminent threat, an assertion that Phipps vehemently denies.

"There's signs outside that say 'Do not enter, hazardous to humans,'" Eshelman said in disbelief. "[The owner] can contest it all he wants, but I know they're going to close this place."

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Eshelman and Garwood haven't been staying at the apartment since the notices were posted Tuesday.

The couple said they don't feel safe in their home after seeing what the city posted on their door and talking with a city employee who was passing out literature.

Eshelman rested one foot atop an empty bed frame Thursday night as he explained a handful of problems he's had in his short time at KC. He recounted the time he found an inebriated neighbor from upstairs urinating in the downstairs hallway, outside the door leading into his oldest son's room.

The two expressed anxiety over their application to Cottonwood Estates. Garwood gushed over the thought of having a green lawn -- the closest grass to their front door is the parkway adjacent to the Nicolaysen Art Museum -- and recounted how she cried when she first realized the extent of the filth within the apartment.

Eshelman carted mattresses from his apartment to the Dumpster. Infested with bed-bugs, none of the family's mattresses will be following them to their new home.

Across the parking lot, two people stumbled out of a lower floor apartment in KC Apartment complex, barely able to walk, let alone speak.

Both appeared to be in their mid-50s, both looked beat down and messy, and neither muttered a coherent word before walking in the direction of the Bi-Rite Liquor store at Collins & Beech.

At least five other people were inside, guzzling malt liquor and yelling at each other. Two younger people followed the inebriated couple out of the building, not completely wasted but both with bloodshot eyes and flushed faces.

It was 2:30 in the afternoon.

"This is the type of [stuff] I deal with all the time," Phipps groaned, before screaming at a tenant for allowing the older couple into the building.

You can reach city reporter Pete Nickeas at pete.nickeas@trib.com or (307) 266-0639. You can read more about Casper politics and government at http://tribtown.trib.com/redtape