Among all the other problems Americans have, there is now a crisis of squatters not leaving homes who are taking advantage of tenants rights. These types of rights sound good when they are passed to give relief, but at the cost of another group of people who own the home.
I was in the studio of Carl Higbie’s Frontline show on Newsmax on his Threat Assessment segment. Watch:
Transcript
CARL HIGBIE
Well, today’s threat assessment, the threat to the American dream and how some people are actually taking it at your expense. Now, the American dream is to own a house. You do the right thing. You work hard, you save your money, and then people can just come and take it from you. Now, Democrat run Atlanta is battling a major squatting crisis.
I’m laughing because they did it to themselves. This is like 1200 homes have been overtaken, leaving landlords to clear unwanted residents themselves or wait sometimes months for police to get around to it.
Now, one Atlanta neighborhood is finding itself at the center of this scandal after squatters transformed a home into an illegal strip club and organized illegal street races.
But hey, bail reform and stuff, right? That should be the top priority of Atlanta. Another Democrat-run city
President of American Women’s Alliance, Gayle Trotter, and managing partner of Harbor Media law, Michael Maddow. All right, Michael, this, to me, sounds so dumb. How have we gotten to a place where you can’t evict somebody by dinnertime from your own house?
MICHAEL MADAIO
It’s a major problem. It’s an inefficiency to the system. I mean, we’re talking about there are people that are sneaking into these homes or using Airbnb’s or using whatever way they can. They’re getting in there and they’re staying and they’re unable to get them. You have to go to the court, get court intervention. The police won’t help once they have these tenants rights. It’s a major problem. It’s a major issue. And there are a lot of people that are just taking advantage of the situation.
HIGBIE
Gayle, as we expand this, this goes nationwide to the problem is, it’s like all these landlord–and this happened during COVID–they’re like, hey, you know what? You can’t evict people and we’re going to do it by some executive fiat, but that the landlords still have to pay their mortgage.
GAYLE TROTTER
Exactly right, and it shows the unintended consequences that make it difficult for people to find housing, so it drives up the prices for everyone. Families, young people can’t find housing because there are effects from these policies being enforced.
They sound good when they’re passed and they sound good when you give relief to people, but you’re giving relief to one group of people at the cost of another group of people.
The people who are squatting are clearly not the people we want to be incentivizing with this type of policy.
HIGBIE
Before you know it, you end up with strip clubs and drag racing. So that’s interesting. All right. But it’s happening more than we think, Michael. This is Beverly Hills, Long Island, Miami. I know Connecticut is dealing with some of this. Even in Maine, an Army officer came back from active duty to find a squatter living in her Georgia home. Take a listen to what she had to do to get him out.
ARMY OFFICER
I also researched Georgia laws. There is one on the books, Title 44, 1130. It’s an affidavit you filed with the courts. It’s called a detainer warrant. And that’s what you can use to get an intruder out of your home. Had I not done that, I would not have been able to get him out.
HIGBIE
I will grab this dude by the throat and throw him out my front door. Is it do you see a problem with that?
MADAIO
Absolutely. And it’s like you said, it’s many cities all over. I know in New York it’s absolutely a problem. And in New York, even at the absolute minimum, the quickest you can get one of these people, that would be 30 days. And that’s, you know, assuming the courts go at full efficiency and full speed, which never happened. So it’s a major problem for everyone. The timing is the major issue. If these people get in and you just can’t get them out in jail.
HIGBIE
But that’s the bigger problem, is like you have people this woman who comes home from a deployment overseas and is like, hey, surprise, there’s some dude with his feet up on your couch. And, by the way, there’s very little legal remedy for you.
TROTTER
Yes, and that’s why we have laws in the first place. It’s to order our lives together.
You want to have people not engage in self-help. So if you look at what that Army officer was saying, she felt like she wanted to shoot out the windows and she wanted to go take care of him herself. But we don’t want that. We want to have policies to have orderly transmission of people out of the house.
When you have a failure like this, you are going to have people dealing with self-help. You don’t want these violent confrontations. If you look at the news reports, they talk about people shooting at cleaners who come in and try to clean the house after the squatters have failed to relinquish the property.
HIGBIE
Yeah. Michael, is this where we’re at in America now? Where me, who pays a mortgage and has a job and does all this has less rights then the people who just kick in my front door?
MADIO
Fortunately, it seems that’s where we are right now. So I think we need some sort of legislation. I mean, it’s especially, unfortunately in mostly in the blue states, it’s a major issue there. So, you know, things need to change and so it’s a major problem.
HIGBIE
Well, there is legislation in most states called Castle Doctrine. Try me. All right, Gail, Michael, appreciate it.
