A few months ago the LA Times ran a story about a serial squatter who rented an Airbnb guesthouse in Brentwood and then refused to move when her time was up. She ended up staying an additional 570 rent-free days.
Response: Nothing.
The Times tried again in February with a story about an abandoned office tower covered in graffiti. The story got some brief play, but that was all.
Response: Nothing.
Later in the month the Times wrote about a Hollywood mansion taken over by squatters. It included the titillating fact that one of the squatters was an OnlyFans model making "content" for her page.
Response: Nothing.
In Early March the New York Post tried its hand at the genre with a story about a squatter "living the luxe life" in a $2 million home in Queens.
Response: Nothing.
Finally, the LA Times got back in the game with a story about Flash Shelton, the "Squatter Hunter." For a fee of $5,000 or more, Shelton and his team "out-squat" squatters and get them to leave.
Response: Bingo! Fox News picked it up. Ben Carson got involved. Joe Rogan did a podcast and Elon Musk tweeted about it. Inside Edition did a segment. CNN, CBS News, the New York Post, and the Daily Mail all piled on. This is why you're suddenly hearing about squatters:
Stories about an "epidemic" of squatting have been common for more than a decade, and there's no reason to think it's on the rise at the moment. Even the LA Times piece about Flash Shelton admits "squatting isn't common" (in the 23rd paragraph), and says he's handled ten jobs "over the last few months" (in the 34th paragraph).
Still, if you push a button often enough eventually you'll get a response. That's how squatting finally went viral.
Yeah, well, Shark Week has rather jumped, you know, the shark.
Actually, this is the first time I'd heard anything about squatters. So I will add my usual reminder that what one gets from Google Trends is relative only to the terms used. So what that means is looking up "squatters" is today, (well, was a few days ago) roughly 10x more frequent than it was over the last year.
For a more complete "look" (perhaps) we can add another term - say "evictions" and see them relative to one another: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=squatters,evictions&hl=en
And then to be ... different we can add an ostensibly unrelated search term: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=squatters,evictions,taylor%20swift&hl=en
Or, since I am not Swiftie, and it being around lunchtime for me: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=squatters,evictions,pizza&hl=en
Or, for those of a more political bent: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&geo=US&q=biden,trump,squatters&hl=en (I shifted the order there to get the colors to be "politically correct" as it were...)
Who's to say what wonders you can do just by spreading some of that sweet PAC and dark money into the right hands. Why, I bet they could work it the other way too, and keep some stories out of the public eye. Just no end to what you can do.
Is there anything that hasn’t been covered by The Simpsons?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28qSr8fulXQ
"Simpsons did it."
Did they have one where he had an affair with a pronstart, paid to keep it quite and falsify tax documents to cover it up?
Not exactly but kind of. Look up Viva Ned Flanders. And not that it “happened” in Las Vegas.
You might want to read your comments before posting. Or maybe you don't know about spelling?
There have been several news items about long-time squatters in the Washington DC metro area, including one in which a house was sold to someone who was made aware that the seller was leaving the problem & expense of evicting squatters to the buyer
These incidents weren't this year, but I did see photos of the hugh-rise graffit - a risky endeavor!
A somewhat different housing issue: Elon Musk repotedly couch-surfs, as if he were among the down-and-out. I have wondered if he ever overstays his welcome with whatever friends he has, & if they have any recourse or are rewarded by their wealthy pal.
Kevin Costner did a whole movie with a subplot of a family squatting in his Paris digs...
I'm no expert but French laws are weird and apparently that happens a lot.
Squatters are everywhere? I may be sheltered but I find it hard to imagine.
I think if anyone tried that here in Burg of Paradise the entirety of city law enforcement would descend on them like they'd discovered Hannibal Lecter.
I have no idea what "Burg of Paradise" is supposed to refer to, but I can tell you from experience that, in at least some of the suburban cities around where I live, if homeless take up in a house there is basically fsckall the police will (and can?) do.
They can come and tell them to leave, and that's it. Even if they do leave (and why would they? what's going to happen?) an hour later they will return.
You would THINK that if you board up the doors so that entry becomes breaking and entering, that would now become a crime that would at least result in arrest and prosecution. Ha ha ha.
Like weaponized shop-lifting, the argument about "is this common" or "why is it being publicized" seem to miss the point! Surely part of a good (and more to the point, persistent) society is that things like this are frowned upon. We can argue about whether rates are up or down, but surely we agree that this sort of thing is bad and that, once aware that it's happening we should stop it?
Except that we don't agree on this. Half of America seems to think that prosperity and functional society just happen by magic, that they're not an incredible anomaly in the stream of overall human history. And these idiots are happy to burn down the mansion they live in, because they're offended by the precise shade of blue in one bathroom. After all, how big a deal is burning it down – another mansion will just grow out of the ground, won't it?
And after they get arrested a second time for doing the same thing within an hour of their first arrest, how do they get out of jail after that?
Name some of these suburban cities? Otherwise I call bullshit on this whole story.
Cool story bro.
Kevin, you keep pushing this type of story - static issue that is treated by the big bad rightwing media as out of control.
This particular shtick would be a lot less jarring and more convincing if you interleaved it with the alternative version. Is there in fact an epidemic of police shootings (of anyone of any color)? Is racism (as defined by any normal human being)in fact worse in 2024 America than ever before in any society in history? Are there in fact on-going increases in violence against , whether it's women, gays, trans, furries or anyone else?
I'm all for calling out the media on their bullshit. I'm rather less enthusiastic about only calling out HALF the media on their bullshit.
You can google the answers to your questions, dipshit. You just don’t like the answers.
Also, “racism isn’t any worse but isn’t any better” isn’t exactly a call for celebration. Racism could indeed have been worse in the days of slavery. Doesn’t mean anybody today should be patting themselves on the back for their ‘more enlightened’ views of “I hate black people but I don’t want to enslave or lynch them, I just want to keep them the hell away from me.” Eat a bag of dicks, Dilbert.
Maybe I’m missing something, but why in the world would the owner allow someone to squat in their house? 570 days in an Airbnb? What the hell? If I was the owner I’d be there with a baseball bat and give them about 15 seconds to vacate the premises.
Are "Settlers" "Squatters"?
You'd think if there were squatters everywhere, then Air B&B's business model would collapse, since it would be too risky to accept short-term rentals from anyone.