Squatters take over foreclosed homes

[Peikko 1,575]

I still don't know how the lienholders feel about this. Anyone know?

as in someone who's had property repossessed by the bank?

repossessed or not, the property has lienholders - in most cases banks... and maybe others too, like utility companies (for unpaid bills), contractors (again, for unpaid bills), etc.

lienholders have (in a normal world) say in what happens to a property.. they would want (i assume) some cash flow from the property. Are they getting that from these squatters? If not, why do they support it, if they do? Or is this just a way to keep the properties from declining even more than they would have if left vacant?

I am sure they don't support the idea of squatting, but at the same time the bolded is one reason why action isn't taken, when it isn't. I expect the other problem is knowledge. If squatters are drug addicts or other low life, the police will arrest them, probably on drugs charges rather than squatting, if not how is anyone supposed to know they are there?

[SpiritAlight 1]

NYT: Squatters call foreclosures home

Advocacy groups screen potential residents, move them into vacant homes

By John Leland

The New York Times

updated 10:31 a.m. CT, Fri., April 10, 2009

MIAMI - When the woman who calls herself Queen Omega moved into a three-bedroom house here last December, she introduced herself to the neighbors, signed contracts for electricity and water and ordered an Internet connection.

What she did not tell anyone was that she had no legal right to be in the home.

Ms. Omega, 48, is one of the beneficiaries of the foreclosure crisis. Through a small advocacy group of local volunteers called Take Back the Land, she moved from a friend’s couch into a newly empty house that sold just a few years ago for more than $400,000.

Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said about a dozen advocacy groups around the country were actively moving homeless people into vacant homes — some working in secret, others, like Take Back the Land, operating openly.

In addition to squatting, some advocacy groups have organized civil disobedience actions in which borrowers or renters refuse to leave homes after foreclosure.

The groups say that they have sometimes received support from neighbors and that beleaguered police departments have not aggressively gone after squatters.

“We’re seeing sheriffs’ departments who are reluctant to move fast on foreclosures or evictions,” said Bill Faith, director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, which is not engaged in squatting. “They’re up to their eyeballs in this stuff. Everyone’s overwhelmed.”

On a recent afternoon, Ms. Omega sat on the tiled floor of her unfurnished living room and described plans to use the space to tie-dye clothing and sell it on the Internet, hoping to save some money before she is inevitably forced to leave.

“It’s a beautiful castle, and it’s temporary for me,” she said, “and if I can be here 24 hours, I’m thankful.” In the meantime, she said, she has instructed her adult son not to make noise, to be a good neighbor.

'A modern-day underground railroad'

In Minnesota, a group called the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign recently moved families into 13 empty homes; in Philadelphia, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union maintains seven “human rights houses” shared by 13 families. Cheri Honkala, who is the national organizer for the Minnesota group and was homeless herself once, likened the group’s work to “a modern-day underground railroad,” and said squatters could last up to a year in a house before eviction.

Other groups, including Women in Transition in Louisville, Ky., are looking for properties to occupy, especially as they become frustrated with the lack of affordable housing and the oversupply of empty homes.

Anita Beaty, executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, said her group had been looking into asking banks to give it abandoned buildings to renovate and occupy legally. Ms. Honkala, who was a squatter in the 1980s, said the biggest difference now was that the neighbors were often more supportive. “People who used to say, ‘That’s breaking the law,’ now that they’re living on a block with three or four empty houses, they’re very interested in helping out, bringing over mattresses or food for the families,” she said.

Ben Burton, executive director of the Miami Coalition for the Homeless, said squatting was still relatively rare in the city.

But Take Back the Land has had to compete with less organized squatters, said Max Rameau, the group’s director.

“We had a move-in that we were going to do one day at noon,” he said. “At 10 o’clock in the morning, I went over to the house just to make sure everything was O.K., and squatters took over our squat. Then we went to another place nearby, and squatters were in that place also.”

Mr. Rameau said his group differed from ad hoc squatters by operating openly, screening potential residents for mental illness and drug addiction, and requiring that they earn “sweat equity” by cleaning or doing repairs around the house and that they keep up with the utility bills.

“We change the locks,” he said. “We pull up with a truck and move in through the front door. The families get a key to the front door.” Most of the houses are in poor neighborhoods, where the neighbors are less likely to object.

Kelly Penton, director of communications for the City of Miami, said police officers needed a signed affidavit from a property’s owner — usually a bank — to evict squatters. Representatives from the city’s homeless assistance program then help the squatters find shelter.

To find properties, Mr. Rameau and his colleagues check foreclosure listings, then scout out the houses for damage. On a recent afternoon, Mr. Rameau walked around to the unlocked metal gate of an abandoned bungalow in the Liberty City neighborhood.

“Let the record reflect that there was no lock on the door,” Mr. Rameau said. “I’m not breaking in.”

Inside, the wiring and sinks had been stripped out, and there was a pile of ashes on the linoleum floor where someone had burned a telephone book — probably during a cold spell the previous week, Mr. Rameau said.

“Two or three weeks ago, this house was in good condition,” Mr. Rameau said. “Now we wouldn’t move a family in here.”

So far the group has moved 10 families into empty houses, and Mr. Rameau said the group could not afford to help any more people. “It costs us $200 per move-in,” he said.

Moving back home

Mary Trody hopes not to leave again. On Feb. 20, Ms. Trody and her family of 12 — including her mother, siblings and children — were evicted from their modest blue house northwest of the city, which the family had lived in for 22 years, because her mother had not paid the mortgage.

After a weekend of sleeping in a paneled truck, however, the family, with the help of Take Back the Land, moved back in.

“This home is what you call a real home,” Ms. Trody said. “We had all family events — Christmas parties, deaths, funerals, weddings — all in this house.”

On a splendid Florida afternoon, Ms. Trody’s dog played in the water from a hose on the front lawn. The house had mattresses on the floors, but most belongings were in storage, in case they had to leave again.

“I don’t think it’s fair living in a house and not paying,” Ms. Trody said.

She said the mortgage lender had offered the family $1,500 to leave but was unwilling to negotiate minimal payments that would allow them to stay. She said she and her husband had been looking for work since he lost his delivery job with The Miami Herald.

In the meantime, she said, “I still got knots in my stomach, because I don’t know when they’re going to come yank it back from me, when they’re going to put me back on the streets.”

The block was dotted with foreclosed homes.

Three of her neighbors said they knew she was squatting and supported her. One is Joanna Jean Pierre, 32, who affectionately refers to Ms. Trody as Momma.

Ms. Pierre said Ms. Trody was a good neighbor and should be let alone. “That’s her house,” Ms. Pierre said. “She should be here.”

Ms. Trody said that living here before, “I felt secure; I felt this is my home.”

“This is where I know I’m safe,” she added. “Now it’s like, this is a stranger. What’s going to happen?”

Even without furniture or homey touches, she talked about the house as if it were a member of her family.

“I know it’s not permanently, but we still have these couple days left,” she said. “It’s like a person that you’re losing, and you know you still have a few more days with them.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30148409

I love this #######!!

Bring it on.

More more more.

Flame on...hee, hee.

If any one here is also a George Carlin fan , then you would have heard him go on about golf courses and such...how to house the homeless, not to mention the working poor.

He and I would have been great friends.

[SpiritAlight 1]

My perspective is, I don't have a problem with squatters who repair and upkeep the housing they squat in.

great. send me your address and i'll move right in. i have experience using chinese toilets, so your living room floor will work for me.

oh? don't like it? you talk the talk, without being willing to walk the walk.

I'm going backwards here...reading the posts after reading and responding to the original post.

I can see what M. Cleo is saying and some of you here do not.

She is not doing that herself and is not supporting nor encouraging anyone to do this.

M. Cleo can see the benefits, aka the silver lining, in everything.

And so...not ragging on squatters is a great start.

If one day any of you find yourselves without income and on your way out of your home, maybe you will look favourably on getting rid of excess stuff, storing the irreplacables (sp?), and squatting your own home with only your basic essentials!

Ha!

I like the sound of that.

OMG it's good to laugh...especially at oneself.

Raise your awareness and evolve your ways of thinking people.

It is time.

An aside: perhaps the buildings/construction-projects of the future will continue to be jails, and now I thought of throwing in: storage buildings. More of 'em.

[justashooter 430]

At the point when the police see them as a problem relative to all their other problems. If the squatters do not cause any particular problems to the neighbourhood they will not do anything.

you need to go to law school before you start giving advice on legal matters.

if the leinholder/owner/mortgage company gives notice to the squatter by way of process server (usually at a cost of about $100, and can be just a posting of the property), then the offense becomes "defiant trespass" which is an M3 in pennsylvania. if the property is damaged by the trespass then the offense can be categorised as "criminal tresspass", which is a more vague charge with wider limits of punishment and can be a felony. it gets really interesting if the lienholder (mortgage company) fails to give notice of ejectment for a long period of time. the period varies by state, but is important in terms of claims of adverse possession.

through adverse possession, an individual may take title from an absent owner. the requirements for adverse possession conveyance require "open and notorious use, continuous presence, knowledge of the owner, etc", and are bolstered by actions such as payment of property tax. this activity must persist, typically for 15 years, without consent of the owner. if the owner ejects the squatter, or accepts rents from or gives consent to occupancy by notice, then the adverse possession clock is stopped, and the period before which an "action to quiet title" may be pursued is extended.

[SpiritAlight 1]

At the point when the police see them as a problem relative to all their other problems. If the squatters do not cause any particular problems to the neighbourhood they will not do anything.

you need to go to law school before you start giving advice on legal matters.

if the leinholder/owner/mortgage company gives notice to the squatter by way of process server (usually at a cost of about $100, and can be just a posting of the property), then the offense becomes "defiant trespass" which is an M3 in pennsylvania. if the property is damaged by the trespass then the offense can be categorised as "criminal tresspass", which is a more vague charge with wider limits of punishment and can be a felony. it gets really interesting if the lienholder (mortgage company) fails to give notice of ejectment for a long period of time. the period varies by state, but is important in terms of claims of adverse possession.

through adverse possession, an individual may take title from an absent owner. the requirements for adverse possession conveyance require "open and notorious use, continuous presence, knowledge of the owner, etc", and are bolstered by actions such as payment of property tax. this activity must persist, typically for 15 years, without consent of the owner. if the owner ejects the squatter, or accepts rents from or gives consent to occupancy by notice, then the adverse possession clock is stopped, and the period before which an "action to quiet title" may be pursued is extended.

Oh face it.

This is irrelevant.

We may all go back to our roots: being nomadic....as this planet was intended to be lived upon.

Acquisition of stuff and property will go the way of the dodo.

Bye bye....

[justashooter 430]

Oh face it.

This is irrelevant.

We may all go back to our roots: being nomadic....as this planet was intended to be lived upon.

Acquisition of stuff and property will go the way of the dodo.

Bye bye....

America is a nation built upon rule of law. any other structure is sure to end in chaos and anarchy. in chaos and anarchy, you, my friend, are toast.

[SpiritAlight 1]

I would not use chaos and anarchy in the same sentence.

They are two different things and ways of being.

If you study the history of anarchism, you would see all the benefits of what that brought us today...for example people's rights, workers' rights, the list is long.

Anarchy is a great thing.

Not the one (anarchy) you believe you know.

The real one.

The honest one.

The communal one.

And I for one will never be toast because I am a pirate!

Hahaha...I mean that in the most loving way.

B)

[Peikko 1,575]

At the point when the police see them as a problem relative to all their other problems. If the squatters do not cause any particular problems to the neighbourhood they will not do anything.

you need to go to law school before you start giving advice on legal matters.

if the leinholder/owner/mortgage company gives notice to the squatter by way of process server (usually at a cost of about $100, and can be just a posting of the property), then the offense becomes "defiant trespass" which is an M3 in pennsylvania. if the property is damaged by the trespass then the offense can be categorised as "criminal tresspass", which is a more vague charge with wider limits of punishment and can be a felony. it gets really interesting if the lienholder (mortgage company) fails to give notice of ejectment for a long period of time. the period varies by state, but is important in terms of claims of adverse possession.

through adverse possession, an individual may take title from an absent owner. the requirements for adverse possession conveyance require "open and notorious use, continuous presence, knowledge of the owner, etc", and are bolstered by actions such as payment of property tax. this activity must persist, typically for 15 years, without consent of the owner. if the owner ejects the squatter, or accepts rents from or gives consent to occupancy by notice, then the adverse possession clock is stopped, and the period before which an "action to quiet title" may be pursued is extended.

Hahaha, you just need to go back to school, period if you think what I posted was 'legal advice'. What a joke.

[SpiritAlight 1]

Alright, I'm on a rant horse or something today so I'll just let it flow:

I wish so much we could listen to the elders.

The ones that understood.

The ones that told stories from one generation to the next.

The ones that get that one should not and cannot own land/property, and cannot and should not screw around with nature....i.e. reversing river flows for one...this list is long.

The ones that feel one cannot put a price tag on a tree.

Do you understand the depth of this?

We, humans, are here and disrespecting the planet as well as other humans.

What hope is there for us?

The shred of hope I hold on to is this:

Everywhere I go I do find a tiny group of like-minded people.

They exude love and hope and try to live gently on this earth.

They get we are all passing through....no need to try for a huge piece of the pie...and do what with it when we are gone?

Live simply, live minimally, live for exploration and experience with respect and gentleness (again) to ourselves and Mother Earth.

Live for love.

There is nothing else worth anything.

No huge diamonds, no huge piles of gold, no amount of buildings owned, or massive nest egg will give anyone happiness if they are alone and/or if they live in greed and "ownership".

AND

If this country truly lived with the "rule of law" it would not look like how it does.

Sorry to say.

Please pinch thyselves and have another look.

Again, with all due respect....and because I care.

Spirit

Edited April 13, 2009 by SpiritAlight

[justashooter 430]

I would not use chaos and anarchy in the same sentence.

They are two different things and ways of being.

If you study the history of anarchism, you would see all the benefits of what that brought us today...for example people's rights, workers' rights, the list is long.

Anarchy is a great thing.

Not the one (anarchy) you believe you know.

The real one.

The honest one.

The communal one.

And I for one will never be toast because I am a pirate!

Hahaha...I mean that in the most loving way.

B)

yeah, uhum, i'll check with nestor makhno on that one. anarchy isn't pretty. it involves killing and pillaging and rapine behaviour. it is chaos, as a social system.

communism only works in societies so small that everyone knows each other's name, and nobody has a door on their house, or anything of value inside. once you get more complicated than that, it's just as corruptible as any other system