The United States is facing a severe squatter problem, with tenants’ rights laws in some states protecting non-paying individuals who can occupy a property that is not theirs for months or even years.
Police in most jurisdictions have adopted a hands-off approach toward this widespread issue amid growing concerns that illegal immigrants entering through the southern border may soon discover how easy it is to take over someone’s vacant property.
James S. Burling, vice president of legal affairs for the Pacific Legal Foundation in California, told The Epoch Times that he hasn’t personally seen the squatter issue exacerbated by illegal immigrants but it might be just a matter of time.
“People are smart, especially if you’re waiting for an asylum decision. They talk and if there’s a process to do that, they’ll find out. There are gangs who follow this direction and there’s no reason that immigrants aren’t going to take advantage of the same loopholes.”
Flash Shelton got involved in the squatter business, helping out his mother, whose home was taken over by people with no legal property rights. He has since started his own squatter removal company called Squatter Hunters and says the sheer amount of illegal immigrants crossing the borders of California, Arizona, and Texas is going to cause an influx of issues sooner than later.
“The United Nations estimates a billion squatters worldwide. We know it’s not a U.S. thing, and immigrants know what it is. It’s no secret. We opened up our borders and I believe it was irresponsible to do that without the resources in place to take care of all those people we have on the streets today,” he told The Epoch Times. “It’s only a matter of time before they figure out they can break into someone’s house while on vacation and claim squatter’s rights. Squatting is a viral thing right now in the United States and something not considered with the masses of people coming in undocumented without going through a legal system.”
Specific cities across the country deal with this issue daily, including Atlanta, which, according to the National Rental Home Council, has 1,200 homes in the metro area occupied by squatters. Squatter’s rights in many locales allow a squatter to occupy a home if the owners or landlord hasn’t taken action.
Even if they take legal means to get squatters out, court backlogs can mean they can stay for as long as eight months before their first hearing. With housing inventory shortages, some are writing up their own leases and even changing locks in some homes to claim the property.
Eric Gaylord, the owner of Georgia Building Inspection, encountered a home for sale that was already under contract and found the key from the real estate lock box didn’t work. “We got there and found out that the key wasn’t working, and all the locks had been changed. They looked like tenants of the home. That held up the transaction for a month, and we had to get the sheriff involved,” he told The Epoch Times.
Mr. Gaylord posted the situation on social media and “got a couple hundred thousands of views and hundreds of comments. This is so easy to do and so hard on the owners. There’s no protection for the property owners and what they have to do to get their property back is absurd,” he added.
David Yukelson, the executive director and CEO of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, says that in California, property owners and landlords have more to be worried about than illegal immigrants squatting in their properties.
“It’s not just the migrants. We’re emptying out our prisons in California, too. We hear stories like some tenants who move in their formerly incarcerated boyfriends. In Ventura County, we had Colombian drug gangs who were coming into the market and paid their first month’s rent and security deposit and never paid again.
“They would stay as long as they could with fake identities and doing drug sales out of the apartment until they’d get kicked out,” he told The Epoch Times. “The police department is depleted in Los Angeles and a hundred officers short. They don’t have the time to deal with this stuff. They’re shown a fake lease and they won’t get involved beyond that because it’s a civil matter.”
The lack of police involvement got Squatter Hunter’s founder, Mr. Shelton, into the business. He said he informs the police in the area that he’s there to evict squatters from properties contracting him to do so and to stay back until he needs them. Already in talks for developing a television program, he says all his efforts are documented.
“I’m recognizing that squatter laws come down to possession. I don’t do anything off camera and now have a crew that walks in there with me.”
