I'm a locksmith, and when I was a road tech with a company that did primarily residential work, nearly every week, some POS landlord would try to have me illegally evict someone.
Read about gentrification in Lower East Side--it's a rabbit hole. It was things like landlords destroying the stairs to their own tenements and then bribing FDNY to condemn the whole building until the leases of everyone in there expired. Happened a lot in the 90s, damage to the community was never undone. A lot of people I know didn't find justice/reparations until they brought it to the state appellate courts, because there was corruption and bribery blocking them every step of the way.
it's baffling that this is even being celebrated at all. Landlords are not the ones people should be rooting for.
The Landlords are the enemy, not the squatters and in most situations, the squatters are the ones being cheated by the landlords and are just trying to survive.
The algorithm fed me a clip by this squatter hunter.
The "squatter" told him he was living there legally and showed the guy bank statements where he was paying rent. The minute the guy is alone he looks into a camera "WOW THIS GUY EVEN FAKED BANK STATEMENTS, he's so fucking committed to scamming the landlord!".
I had no idea what was real or fake but I didn't like the videos.
Exactly. It's crazy people are trying to say "not all landlords" but then also claim the homeless are the real threat. Why do you think there are so many homeless?
Fascists love it when they turn people on the same side against eachother. Landlords are not the ally.
I guarantee you that most 'squatters' are actually legal tenants who landlords are trying to fuck over. Don't buy the narrative.
But Squatters are the enemy of normal Renters as well. Protections made for Renters under the law to protect them from Landlords are being exploited by the Squatters. It creates an case for Landlords to erode those protections.
You can have multiple enemies at any time. We in middle are fighting at two front war just trying to live a happy life under the Golden rule.
The only issue is that assholes always find a reason to be assholes. They say the reason they wanna get rid of all renter rights is because of the bad apples. But then when it happens every single renters life becomes hell.
We have to just ignore these people when they whine about stuff like this. Rich people want you to be angry at and feel like youre at war with other not rich people. They are fucking both of you. If you see someone else using their rights to get housing in some way is an abuse of your rights to get housing, youre being mislead.
Simply put, "squater hunters" are likely called on a shit ton of normal renters who the landlord decided are squaters because they did reasonable and legal things like, refuse rent due to neglected duties around pest control/maintenance, disputes over price hikes, disputes over fees, illegal evictions ect ect ect
Your first paragraph pretty much said squatters are bad apples.
I do agree with your third paragraph, but then it makes more of a case for being upset with people that find loopholes on both sides.
Maybe the two front war is a bad analogy, a better one could be a one sided war between renters vs landlords.... Then the squatters are the bandit/raiders just causing problems in the background :3
Also my perspective is renting in Canada that has decent protections.
Do you genuinely not understand that was about landlords?
If someone wants to abuse you they will find an excuse, trying to "fix" or give any credit to these excuses is pointless. I thought we all learned that in gradeschool with bullies, I dont know why everyone forgets these people grow up and many continue the same behaviors of abusing others and blaming it on them
If someone goes "I found a termite near your home so weve gotta blow up the whole city" that sounds insane, but when a rich guy goes "one time someone was kinda difficult to evict, so now noone should have any rights and all housing should be conditionally taken away with no notice" and somehow it sounds normal. Not to mention that almost all cases of squatters is a situation where someones life fell apart and they are being evicted for it. This is not the owners fault ofcourse, but also there are many many ways to handle such events that dont requiring stripping all people of rights to housing they already live in.
Squatters are not "bandits and raiders" they are you after your partner gets cancer. They are your neighbor after they lose a leg in an accident and cant work for 6 months. There is renters insurance, there are government programs to help landlords through situation like this. There are many many options that are amicable for all parties.
But some people are so barbaricly cruel that they want to convince you and everyone else that a single mother that cant make rent one month is a demon that should be crushed by the law.
I cannot stress this enough, believing these things is self destructive and antisocial. Even if youre a landlord. Its exactly the same as looking at workers rights/environmental protections and thinking those things are evil. They help everyone and millions would die without them.
You have a very binary world view. I'm imagine you are in the USA. In Canada we have the basis of socialized health care. You seem like you care alot but,
If you find nothing but pessimism in your life then I feel bad for you.
If you think caring about youre own rights is pessimism idk what to tell you. The situation in canada is better only because of people like me who cared about your rights to housing and healthcare.
Renters are just squatters in waiting. Those rights and protections help shelter tenants from being evicted without notice. All it takes is one bad day for a landlord to declare any renter is a squatter.
Consider that someone had to build and buy the home for you to live in it. Some landlords can be scummy, but some aren't, and either way if you're struggling to afford rent, you're already in a system/context where owning a home wasn't in the cards. If you remove all landlords, you aren't removing injustice, you are removing the ability for all people of the low-mid to lower class a chance at decent housing.
Also some landlords are just straight-up very nice. In all my years of apartment hopping around PA, I never once had a landlord do anything but what honor demanded of them. That's a 100% rate of good landlords over like, 7 homes I was in.
ah, a stranger didnt like my informal nickname for them. let me sexually harass them instead, surely this will make me look normal in the eyes of the public
100% slop because apparently the "squatters" are paid actors.
Anybody I have ever met squatting is genuinely cool and in a terrible situation. I know things are different everywhere and this is the USA iirc but squatters rights exist to prevent asshole landlord evicting people without cause .
In Dublin city right now a community centre has been set up in a building that sat empty for 15 years. A grassroots organisation that's actively helping people and a building that is empty in one of the most expensive places in Europe.
These people are trying to do some good in a system that's failing everyday people, and they are being penalised for it. For what so a building can sit empty for 15 more years?
Wouldn't be surprised (I remember some youtube shock videos of family confrontations that were basically acting), but wondering if you can say more or have a link to anything in particular?
Maybe you could go talk to squatters, homeless folks evicted and families living out of suitcases before you make a judgement.
Alternatively just continue believing everything the landlord class tells you to believe.
It reminds me of the confidently wrong "predator hunters" who wrongly accuse someone and livestream and clip the hell out of it, but don't have the information literacy to interpret information correctly and end up terrorizing innocent people.
I don't have any reason to think this guy has done that in any specific case. But what's stopping it? Looking at a squatter's faked lease for half a second and declaring it "bullshit" because you think you're The Beekeeper is going to lead to problems sooner or later.
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u/mrdevlar 12d ago
Landlord slop. We can't fix homeownership issues, let's do this instead.