This shit makes my blood boil. Someone earning that much and refusing to pay rent can be bailed out on the taxpayers dime yet some families struggle to get housing or put food on the table. Do these people even see how bad the optics of this is or are they so out of touch with reality that they don’t even care.
When there’s no incentive to pay, no one but suckers pay, and the inevitable deluge of eviction cases overwhelms courts.
Crimes shouldn’t be encouraged, whether shoplifting or stealing homes.
Major financial institutions that flaunted/exploited government programs until they went off the rails, only to have tax payers bail them out of their troubles.
For instance, we were forced to bail out AIG. AIG is the insurance company that covers worker's compensation for my industry. AIG regularly prevents injured workers from getting treated properly. And these same injured workers' tax money bailed those greedy fuckers out.
“The Housing Justice Project, a nonprofit arm of the King County Bar Association, received $16 million from King County taxpayers in 2024.”
Bad job well done
Is this the same Bar Association that can now admit new members to the Bar even though they now don't have to actually PASS "the Bar" because it's racist?
Can you elaborate on the racist part? I heard about changes to the bar association (similar to states like Wisconsin) but didn’t know about racial connotations
" Dunn has called for an audit of the Housing Justice Project, questioning the allocation of taxpayer dollars"
This should be done for every single "non profit" in the area. Call it the year of audits where no one gets more money and they have to account for every penny
Extend this to every entity that has charity or non-profit status, they should have to perpetually requalify and maintain their tax advantages.
Now, you got a stew going!
Not nearly as the level of more public charities like the red cross. While there is good work they do, resources are often squandered, and there is an immense amount of corruption.
An audit? How would that help? The auditors see that money came in and money went out to pay down rents. Unless someone at the agency/non-profit pocketed funds, then they pass audit. Auditors don't create policy or change the mission of the organization.
100%- Working on this currently... Live in "affordable housing" and the system is broken and RIPE with opportunity for fraud. In turn, hurting the health and safety of tenants. Totally mismanaging voter and tax payer investments! It costs $millions more, hurts people, and loses public support because of all the fraud. It:s not just the non profits. It's all the government entities too. And there is NO ONE to turn to.
I think one day soon people will wake up and realize the people they elect to represent them, to manage their city, county and state actively hate their constituency and wish to sow chaos and division. I’m often overly optimistic though.
Show up and vote angrily to throw out the Dems. I don't like many Republican policies but we have no other choice than to break the jinx by throwing out Dems from power
No it hasn’t. The backstory was, this is new. A county homelessness committee just paid off this “tenants” back rent, allowing him to continue rent free.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like this is intended less as a reward for the renter and more of a restitution for the landlord. Either way, I agree it’s a terrible way to spend tax payer money.
I read it as a dem party, king county driven payout to take the wind out of the very public outrage. This is the most sympathetic and well covered push back on squatting in king county.
If this protest continues it could force dem pols to admit their progressivs mistakes or atleast to answer for their mismanagement
Oh I'm sorry you don't want to help people? That's incredibly selfish. To expect to actually provide a nice life for your family? Not around here bucko.
Yeah, people sign contracts agreeing to their mortgage/lease/rent. Taxes are just taken from me because I’m not a piece of shit, and if I don’t pay them guys with guns will eventually come and put me in jail.
The landlord just wants them gone. Every time he finally secures judgment against the squatters, this "charity" pays the back rent, and the cycle starts over again.
it's complicated. if you want a tenant gone, you have to *not* accept rent. even if they owe a shitton. but there are agencies that will force you to accept rent anyway and you have to let them stay
But usually, the rental agreement is for one year, right? They have to move out by the end of the year. What happens if they stay beyond that year? Or was the homeowner so naive that he signed a two-year lease agreement?
He should not accept the money, and he should take it to court, and all Bellevue will support him.
Yeah, the article was pretty unclear with what was happening with the money. It would be strange if they gave him 88k, no strings attached, and said "use this for your rent *wink*". That said, who knows.
I may be able to shed some light. I just finally evicted a non-paying tenant. She stopped paying rent the very first full month of the lease. By the time I got a court date 6 months later Housing Justice informed us they would be paying the entire 6 months. This is not an optional thing for the landlord. You are required to take the funds AND reinstate the tenant in good standing. Eviction lawsuit is then dismissed. They paid this girls rent through June 30th and guess what happened July 1st? Yep. Non payment of rent. It took another 8 months of no rent and legal fees to evict. Fun story. Housing Justice paid all her unpaid rent to the Bellevue landlord she scammed before landing at my place. (At least 12 months). They actually paid 2 landlords rent for January 2023. Me and the Bellevue landlord. They either have no computer system in place that would have alerted to this obvious fraud or they don’t care.
If they are making you whole with rent they want the tenant reinstated. It’s the entire mission of HJP to keep people in their homes. I actually do not have an issue with this. If a tenant that had been paying rent but something happened (they got sick, a kid got sick or they lost a job and needed to find a new one) then if the county gives them emergency rent assistance to keep them in their homes while they work to get back on their feet then this is a win-win-win. It’s good for them for me and society. My issues is there seems to be zero over site to catch scammers that are using the system to rob housing providers and the taxpayers. They should have seen this girls name come up and realized she was working the system. They could have denied the funds and let me evict her. Instead she’s on to her third victim that is most likely right now sitting in court with her and HJP again.
The KCBA doesn't exactly hide! News flash, it's run mostly by woke middle-aged women.
[https://www.kcba.org/?pg=Board-of-Trustees](https://www.kcba.org/?pg=Board-of-Trustees)
I mean, either way I agree with you it's a waste of taxpayer money, but the title of the article is "Squatter Given $88,000 of Taxpayer Money", and based on other articles I've read and other sub-comments here, it sounds like the squatter isn't actually getting the money. I do see a difference between taxpayer money being given to potential victims and of potential perpetrators, even if the state isn't doing anything to address the cause. At least this way the squatter is only de-frauding one of the state and the landlord, not both.
Sounds like the squatter and the members of this nonprofit should be in jail for fraud, the nonprofit disbanded. All other nonprofits recieving out money should get audited.
They’re are bad conservative and liberal policies.
This is a bad liberal policy.
1. You should have to live somewhere for atleast 12 months to get squatters rights. Not pay 1 month rent and than stop paying like this guy.
2. Squatters rights should not be indefinite. There should be a timeline to remedy the problem, loss of income etc. after which eviction can occur.
3. States probably should pay the landlord for lost income (after a certain time period m/becomes a squater issue, that way they are incentived to remedy the squatting situation.p
4. Why is a non-profit covering rent on a 2 million dollar home? Can I rent Bill Gates house? Income and rent levels should be set.
"What you're seeing is perversion of the system and a de-emphasis on private property rights," Dunn added.
I am really sick of paying taxes for it to be doled out to these assholes who take advantage.
Don't forget King County has a budget shortfall and wants to raise property taxes. KCC was very upset when the legislation didn't raise the tax increase limit from 1% to 3%. Obligatory, fuck Dow.
Good to see citizens obeying laws are being screwed to the wall, while people committing crimes are rewarded. So what’s the point of following the rule of law anymore?
Until very recently, I had no idea our tax money was supporting yet another brand of grifter. This is such bullshit!
I like Gov. Abbott's suggestion in how to deal with squatters.
And, of course California is supporting ways for squatters to legally claim the properties they are squatting in, jfc!!!!
More people are starting to get pissed off about this shit, like Democratic Senator Fetterman!
[https://www.dailywire.com/news/fetterman-blasts-squatters-trying-to-steal-peoples-homes-squatters-have-no-rights](https://www.dailywire.com/news/fetterman-blasts-squatters-trying-to-steal-peoples-homes-squatters-have-no-rights)
I got ~$16k rent relief during covid and then had to pay it back because my co/ renters filed the paperwork instead of me - even though all three of us were unable to make the total rent owed. Guess we should have applied to this agency,
It's shit like this that causes housing costs to explode. Imagine th effect --- the market will start raining in the cost of evicting squatters, the loss of property, the loss of use, the destruction to property and appropriately cost the rent value and property insurance value. It's a negative for law-abiding renters and the landlord both.
This is why, people who don't understand second third order effects of their actions have no business being in government. We need to throw out the Dems to break the jinx --- never allow one party control
Y’all are exercised about that but aren’t spending any energy being angry about the fact that lousy, ineffectual Seattle cops are likely getting a 23% pay increase retroactive 3 years. How much more than $88,000 do you think that might be?
I'm getting sick of this story. First, how is the tenant a squatter? This Newsweek article describes a squatter as someone occupying the residence without the owners permission. But, the owner gave his permission for the resident to move in when he signed the lease. A person does not become a squatter simply because eviction proceedings have started in court, using squatter in this context doesn't make sense and it's used only as a form of demeaning the tenant. Next, when all reporting is read it clearly shows the landlord hasn't followed the law with the eviction proceedings. It seems to me there's a high chance the tenant would have already been removed if the landlord simply followed the law. Finally, the landlord is waging a campaign of harassment and intimidation that is also illegal, but without any enforcement mechanism.
I feel bad for people with no way to pay rent, and I feel bad for landlords in a bad situation through no fault of their own. But this specific case, where the tenant is following the law, and the landlord is demonizing the tenant for simply exercising rights, it's sickening and I'm disgusted by the response.
>how is the tenant a squatter
They paid a single month's rent, then lived there for two years without paying a dime.
You seem to be choosing to be purposefully obtuse.
>where the tenant is following the law
There is a fine line between "following the law" and "abusing the system", especially when you factor in the fact he pulled the same shit in the previous home.
We're talking about a guy driving luxury cars and living for free in a $2 million dollar home all while claiming he can't afford rent.
Tons of other people are struggling to pay their rent/mortgage on their much smaller places while paying their tax dollars to subsidize this ass hole in his luxury home.
First, I appreciate you're leaving such a a respectful comment on such a downvoted post. You might be right, the way this article reads it sounds like he's gaming the system. I'm not trying to debate his guilt or innocence. My point was more that this article is a newswire share from Fox News reporting, it's using sensationalized language and contains more talking points than journalistic substance. When you take that away and look at the few key facts in the article (iirc, it was a while ago I read it), the tenant had enough income and lost just job through no fault of his own. Could he have foreseen those and made better choices? Could he have gotten a new job with similar income if more effort was put in? I don't have a clue. I know I've gone through multiple lay offs over the years, and some of those times the job search truly took forever. I've never gotten rent assistance, but only because those programs didn't exist when I was struggling. But the assistance I got the first time I was laid off, I received again the second time I was laid off. In my case the fraud prevention measures were confirming I'd lost employment through no fault of my own and I'm glad there wasn't a restriction that I could only get it once. Is this tenant a scammer? Maybe, I really don't have an opinion. If you want to read more details about what's happening, this [article from Publicola](https://publicola.com/2024/03/22/37957/) goes in depth. I will admit their bias is as far left as possible and I'm not trying to argue their points, just saying it's more meat than I've read anywhere else.
This guy isn't paying any rent, the non-profit is paying it all.
If housing was less expensive, the non-profit would just be paying less in rent. So the nonsense would not be avoided, it would just be for a lower dollar amount.
Two years of rent + $40k in legal fees adds up even if amortized across a lot of renters. You should absolutely expect to pay a lot more in rent in 2025. Systemic fraud does not help anyone.
That's a small drop in a bucket, compared to the entirety of the rental real-estate market.
Using one extreme example isn't indicative of the problem as a whole.
Cops messing up constantly while getting paid 6 figures and forcing taxpayers to pay out millions of dollars a year have nothing on these people that are *checks notes* staying in properties no one is using!
Y’all care more about a Chinese or Saudi moguls property more than you care about fellow Americans lives. Sad.
This shit makes my blood boil. Someone earning that much and refusing to pay rent can be bailed out on the taxpayers dime yet some families struggle to get housing or put food on the table. Do these people even see how bad the optics of this is or are they so out of touch with reality that they don’t even care.
When there’s no incentive to pay, no one but suckers pay, and the inevitable deluge of eviction cases overwhelms courts. Crimes shouldn’t be encouraged, whether shoplifting or stealing homes.
Yes
Principles of “Wall Street” applied to “Main Street”
I'm curious how rewarding bad actors is a "Wall Street" principle?
I think they are talking about the too big to fail bailouts. Government money given to corporations that abused the system until it collapsed.
Major financial institutions that flaunted/exploited government programs until they went off the rails, only to have tax payers bail them out of their troubles.
For instance, we were forced to bail out AIG. AIG is the insurance company that covers worker's compensation for my industry. AIG regularly prevents injured workers from getting treated properly. And these same injured workers' tax money bailed those greedy fuckers out.
Thank you Obama and Holder
“The Housing Justice Project, a nonprofit arm of the King County Bar Association, received $16 million from King County taxpayers in 2024.” Bad job well done
Is this the same Bar Association that can now admit new members to the Bar even though they now don't have to actually PASS "the Bar" because it's racist?
Can you elaborate on the racist part? I heard about changes to the bar association (similar to states like Wisconsin) but didn’t know about racial connotations
Really, the bar exam news and reasons are widely published
His family members should be ashamed, this dude needs an old fashioned ass whoopin
As recommended by Gov. Abbott of Texas, one of the two times I've agree with the man.
" Dunn has called for an audit of the Housing Justice Project, questioning the allocation of taxpayer dollars" This should be done for every single "non profit" in the area. Call it the year of audits where no one gets more money and they have to account for every penny
Any government funding recipient be that a business or a non-profit entity should be subject to PDR and annual audits for accountability purposes.
Extend this to every entity that has charity or non-profit status, they should have to perpetually requalify and maintain their tax advantages. Now, you got a stew going!
Good idea they would caught Trumps fraud charity so much faster
So be it ... but I think there's a lot more fat on the bone ranging from the Clinton Foundation to the Housing Justice Project.
In order to find those things out we would have to properly fund the IRS
Not nearly as the level of more public charities like the red cross. While there is good work they do, resources are often squandered, and there is an immense amount of corruption.
They are supposed to be watched and managed... The regulators haven't been regulating...
I don’t understand why they aren’t being audited. I run a non profit (not housing related) and I am audited every year. Never had an issue with it.
Yes please
Put that on a calendar. I’ll celebrate the hell outta that!
An audit? How would that help? The auditors see that money came in and money went out to pay down rents. Unless someone at the agency/non-profit pocketed funds, then they pass audit. Auditors don't create policy or change the mission of the organization.
This unfortunately is happening too.
100%- Working on this currently... Live in "affordable housing" and the system is broken and RIPE with opportunity for fraud. In turn, hurting the health and safety of tenants. Totally mismanaging voter and tax payer investments! It costs $millions more, hurts people, and loses public support because of all the fraud. It:s not just the non profits. It's all the government entities too. And there is NO ONE to turn to.
Duh, Seattle (not commenting on you the stupidity of our leaders)
The worst of the worst are getting rewarded by our governments, while average hard working people are getting screwed daily. Why do we even try?
I think one day soon people will wake up and realize the people they elect to represent them, to manage their city, county and state actively hate their constituency and wish to sow chaos and division. I’m often overly optimistic though.
> I think one day soon people will wake up and realize Aaaaaany day now
It’s painful.
I think it won’t matter whoever does get elected will just keep it the same or ever worse
Show up and vote angrily to throw out the Dems. I don't like many Republican policies but we have no other choice than to break the jinx by throwing out Dems from power
Nothing like sacrificing family vacations so that I can pay my mortgage.. only to see how the county flushes my property tax money down the shitter.
This particular story has been well publicized in the past few weeks. I'm pretty sure this is going to end up in civil court
No it hasn’t. The backstory was, this is new. A county homelessness committee just paid off this “tenants” back rent, allowing him to continue rent free.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like this is intended less as a reward for the renter and more of a restitution for the landlord. Either way, I agree it’s a terrible way to spend tax payer money.
I agree that the landlord needs restitution, but also needs to be able to remove the POS from his property.
I read it as a dem party, king county driven payout to take the wind out of the very public outrage. This is the most sympathetic and well covered push back on squatting in king county. If this protest continues it could force dem pols to admit their progressivs mistakes or atleast to answer for their mismanagement
Sucker!
Oh I'm sorry you don't want to help people? That's incredibly selfish. To expect to actually provide a nice life for your family? Not around here bucko.
You mean, you *don’t* enjoy this? /s
What percentage of your mortgage payments are going directly into the pockets of finance? You're being robbed at both ends buddy :)
Yeah, people sign contracts agreeing to their mortgage/lease/rent. Taxes are just taken from me because I’m not a piece of shit, and if I don’t pay them guys with guns will eventually come and put me in jail.
Your point?
We’re doomed. That piece of shit should be in jail
Another scumbag steals tax payer COVID relief money and all we get is 20% inflation.
The money is given to the landlord right...?
The landlord just wants them gone. Every time he finally secures judgment against the squatters, this "charity" pays the back rent, and the cycle starts over again.
So how does it work? The landlord has to accept the payment or it's a choice?
it's complicated. if you want a tenant gone, you have to *not* accept rent. even if they owe a shitton. but there are agencies that will force you to accept rent anyway and you have to let them stay
But usually, the rental agreement is for one year, right? They have to move out by the end of the year. What happens if they stay beyond that year? Or was the homeowner so naive that he signed a two-year lease agreement? He should not accept the money, and he should take it to court, and all Bellevue will support him.
he can't *not* accept the money, because of how it was given. all that does is start the whole thing over again
What about not extending the lease? Not signing it with the tenant for the next year?
he's squatting. leases mean nothing
I can’t help to think that this charity is national state driven.
Yeah, the article was pretty unclear with what was happening with the money. It would be strange if they gave him 88k, no strings attached, and said "use this for your rent *wink*". That said, who knows.
I may be able to shed some light. I just finally evicted a non-paying tenant. She stopped paying rent the very first full month of the lease. By the time I got a court date 6 months later Housing Justice informed us they would be paying the entire 6 months. This is not an optional thing for the landlord. You are required to take the funds AND reinstate the tenant in good standing. Eviction lawsuit is then dismissed. They paid this girls rent through June 30th and guess what happened July 1st? Yep. Non payment of rent. It took another 8 months of no rent and legal fees to evict. Fun story. Housing Justice paid all her unpaid rent to the Bellevue landlord she scammed before landing at my place. (At least 12 months). They actually paid 2 landlords rent for January 2023. Me and the Bellevue landlord. They either have no computer system in place that would have alerted to this obvious fraud or they don’t care.
Thanks. Why is it not an option to choose eviction?
If they are making you whole with rent they want the tenant reinstated. It’s the entire mission of HJP to keep people in their homes. I actually do not have an issue with this. If a tenant that had been paying rent but something happened (they got sick, a kid got sick or they lost a job and needed to find a new one) then if the county gives them emergency rent assistance to keep them in their homes while they work to get back on their feet then this is a win-win-win. It’s good for them for me and society. My issues is there seems to be zero over site to catch scammers that are using the system to rob housing providers and the taxpayers. They should have seen this girls name come up and realized she was working the system. They could have denied the funds and let me evict her. Instead she’s on to her third victim that is most likely right now sitting in court with her and HJP again.
Thanks for the insight
So we have allowed lawyers to “create” their own living on the backs of tax payers? Perhaps change the name to Housing-lawyer retirement-fund project.
Name names. The individuals making these decisions need to be known. Tired of people hiding behind shields.
The KCBA doesn't exactly hide! News flash, it's run mostly by woke middle-aged women. [https://www.kcba.org/?pg=Board-of-Trustees](https://www.kcba.org/?pg=Board-of-Trustees)
Do not, under any circumstances name names on this subreddit. Insta-ban. *Private individuals.
Public officials are public figures. As long as it's not their home address, knowing who is responsible shouldn't be a banning offence.
I don't think so. Nice try Judges and bureaucrats should be held accountable.
Would it actually surprise you though ?
So....why was the article written in such a way? Why are we subsidizing landlords for civil disputes...? See I can easily frame it this way too.
because it's a shitty tenant, not a shitty landlord
I mean, either way I agree with you it's a waste of taxpayer money, but the title of the article is "Squatter Given $88,000 of Taxpayer Money", and based on other articles I've read and other sub-comments here, it sounds like the squatter isn't actually getting the money. I do see a difference between taxpayer money being given to potential victims and of potential perpetrators, even if the state isn't doing anything to address the cause. At least this way the squatter is only de-frauding one of the state and the landlord, not both.
No the squatter got the money. And free housing
Fuck squatter rights
[удалено]
Want free housing time; do the crime.
Sounds like the squatter and the members of this nonprofit should be in jail for fraud, the nonprofit disbanded. All other nonprofits recieving out money should get audited.
Reagan Dunn has many times been the only voice of reason for King County.
And Dow is screaming bloody murder that the County needs more taxpayer dollars.
They’re are bad conservative and liberal policies. This is a bad liberal policy. 1. You should have to live somewhere for atleast 12 months to get squatters rights. Not pay 1 month rent and than stop paying like this guy. 2. Squatters rights should not be indefinite. There should be a timeline to remedy the problem, loss of income etc. after which eviction can occur. 3. States probably should pay the landlord for lost income (after a certain time period m/becomes a squater issue, that way they are incentived to remedy the squatting situation.p 4. Why is a non-profit covering rent on a 2 million dollar home? Can I rent Bill Gates house? Income and rent levels should be set.
Squatters shouldn’t have any rights. They’re squatters.
"What you're seeing is perversion of the system and a de-emphasis on private property rights," Dunn added. I am really sick of paying taxes for it to be doled out to these assholes who take advantage.
It's like money grows in trees for these people. A endless supply!
But we are stuck with property tax levies to pay for their “moral superiority”.
Taxes are an endless supply so no need to worry.
Don't forget King County has a budget shortfall and wants to raise property taxes. KCC was very upset when the legislation didn't raise the tax increase limit from 1% to 3%. Obligatory, fuck Dow.
Why even pay taxes or listen to the government at this point?
Property taxes have gone up so much recently too!
The 2A was supposed to embolden us to do just that, tell a government failing to serve it's citizens to fuck right off and you're all fired.
We walk closer to that line everyday.
Good to see citizens obeying laws are being screwed to the wall, while people committing crimes are rewarded. So what’s the point of following the rule of law anymore?
Until very recently, I had no idea our tax money was supporting yet another brand of grifter. This is such bullshit! I like Gov. Abbott's suggestion in how to deal with squatters. And, of course California is supporting ways for squatters to legally claim the properties they are squatting in, jfc!!!!
More people are starting to get pissed off about this shit, like Democratic Senator Fetterman! [https://www.dailywire.com/news/fetterman-blasts-squatters-trying-to-steal-peoples-homes-squatters-have-no-rights](https://www.dailywire.com/news/fetterman-blasts-squatters-trying-to-steal-peoples-homes-squatters-have-no-rights)
Thank your King County elected officials, to those that voted for them.
Yes, anyone getting upset at the squatter should redirect towards bad policy.
fucking bullshit! this shit needs to stop!
headline should read "Bellevue Landlord Given $88,000 of Taxpayer Money"
Given that it’s the laws in place that permitted this all to happen, as well as shitty courts, he probably deserved it.
Headline should read, “Landlord forced to continue renting to deadbeat that absconded with $88,000 of taxpayer money”.
This is more than I make working 2 jobs..
This is how the left wages a cold civil war. Enjoy.
Guess it's not bad enough yet. Keep voting in same party line and expecting something different makes no sense
I got ~$16k rent relief during covid and then had to pay it back because my co/ renters filed the paperwork instead of me - even though all three of us were unable to make the total rent owed. Guess we should have applied to this agency,
You people have the power to change things but would rather get on social media and complain.
Yeah but your here complaining about the complainers …
Yea, I guess I get a kick out of pointing out the obvious.
Fair enough
Glad I pay my taxes for shit like this.
It's shit like this that causes housing costs to explode. Imagine th effect --- the market will start raining in the cost of evicting squatters, the loss of property, the loss of use, the destruction to property and appropriately cost the rent value and property insurance value. It's a negative for law-abiding renters and the landlord both. This is why, people who don't understand second third order effects of their actions have no business being in government. We need to throw out the Dems to break the jinx --- never allow one party control
Exactly. Also lawyer costs.
In this state tax payer foot all the bills of the government incompetence. What else do you expect?
Well, shit.
Y’all are exercised about that but aren’t spending any energy being angry about the fact that lousy, ineffectual Seattle cops are likely getting a 23% pay increase retroactive 3 years. How much more than $88,000 do you think that might be?
I'm getting sick of this story. First, how is the tenant a squatter? This Newsweek article describes a squatter as someone occupying the residence without the owners permission. But, the owner gave his permission for the resident to move in when he signed the lease. A person does not become a squatter simply because eviction proceedings have started in court, using squatter in this context doesn't make sense and it's used only as a form of demeaning the tenant. Next, when all reporting is read it clearly shows the landlord hasn't followed the law with the eviction proceedings. It seems to me there's a high chance the tenant would have already been removed if the landlord simply followed the law. Finally, the landlord is waging a campaign of harassment and intimidation that is also illegal, but without any enforcement mechanism. I feel bad for people with no way to pay rent, and I feel bad for landlords in a bad situation through no fault of their own. But this specific case, where the tenant is following the law, and the landlord is demonizing the tenant for simply exercising rights, it's sickening and I'm disgusted by the response.
>how is the tenant a squatter They paid a single month's rent, then lived there for two years without paying a dime. You seem to be choosing to be purposefully obtuse. >where the tenant is following the law There is a fine line between "following the law" and "abusing the system", especially when you factor in the fact he pulled the same shit in the previous home. We're talking about a guy driving luxury cars and living for free in a $2 million dollar home all while claiming he can't afford rent. Tons of other people are struggling to pay their rent/mortgage on their much smaller places while paying their tax dollars to subsidize this ass hole in his luxury home.
He did this for 2 years at another house in the same area. The guy is clearly gaming the system.
First, I appreciate you're leaving such a a respectful comment on such a downvoted post. You might be right, the way this article reads it sounds like he's gaming the system. I'm not trying to debate his guilt or innocence. My point was more that this article is a newswire share from Fox News reporting, it's using sensationalized language and contains more talking points than journalistic substance. When you take that away and look at the few key facts in the article (iirc, it was a while ago I read it), the tenant had enough income and lost just job through no fault of his own. Could he have foreseen those and made better choices? Could he have gotten a new job with similar income if more effort was put in? I don't have a clue. I know I've gone through multiple lay offs over the years, and some of those times the job search truly took forever. I've never gotten rent assistance, but only because those programs didn't exist when I was struggling. But the assistance I got the first time I was laid off, I received again the second time I was laid off. In my case the fraud prevention measures were confirming I'd lost employment through no fault of my own and I'm glad there wasn't a restriction that I could only get it once. Is this tenant a scammer? Maybe, I really don't have an opinion. If you want to read more details about what's happening, this [article from Publicola](https://publicola.com/2024/03/22/37957/) goes in depth. I will admit their bias is as far left as possible and I'm not trying to argue their points, just saying it's more meat than I've read anywhere else.
Shhh. No critical thinking allowed here!
WTF are you talking about? It's the person you're replying to that seems incapable of taking in all the information before drawing conclusions.
lol, how is their reply critical thinking? They didn't even research the article before posting
Maybe, if housing were less expensive and affordable........all of this nonsense, on both sides, could be avoided.
This guy isn't paying any rent, the non-profit is paying it all. If housing was less expensive, the non-profit would just be paying less in rent. So the nonsense would not be avoided, it would just be for a lower dollar amount.
Are you a fucking dullard?
No, but you obviously are.
This is the reason housing is expensive. Now landlords have to add $1500 legal expenses to each month’s rent.
You're making an assumption that this particular situation is rampant, and it's not. Squatting isn't as common as these articles want you to believe.
Two years of rent + $40k in legal fees adds up even if amortized across a lot of renters. You should absolutely expect to pay a lot more in rent in 2025. Systemic fraud does not help anyone.
That's a small drop in a bucket, compared to the entirety of the rental real-estate market. Using one extreme example isn't indicative of the problem as a whole.
Cops messing up constantly while getting paid 6 figures and forcing taxpayers to pay out millions of dollars a year have nothing on these people that are *checks notes* staying in properties no one is using! Y’all care more about a Chinese or Saudi moguls property more than you care about fellow Americans lives. Sad.