Experts Say Squatters Are Rare. Does That Matter?

Squatters have become big news in the past month and some news outlets seem eager to make the case that incidents of squatting are so rare they are hardly worth noticing. For instance, here’s the Washington Post from earlier this week.

The national conversation around “squatters” has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, spurred by conflicts that have gone viral and legislative actions in at least four states…

Squatting is extremely rare, according to experts — so rare that there is no reliable data available on the number of squatters across the country. But with a handful of high-profile cases of property owners going to court to evict illegal residents, a right-wing media frenzy and the introduction of state bills, the topic has become ubiquitous…

Sateesh Nori, a clinical adjunct professor of housing rights at NYU Law School, said, “I haven’t heard of a single case recently in which a homeowner says there’s squatters in their home.”…

“What I think is happening is that it’s just a good story,” Nori said. “It only takes two or three examples for people to think this is rampant. I don’t doubt the facts in these several incidents that have been reported — and it’s quite horrible what’s happened to these homeowners — but I don’t think there is some kind of epidemic of squatters taking over neighborhoods in New York City or anywhere.”

All of this may be true and yet…so what? The left’s response has been: It’s rare so why should we care. But does it matter whether squatting is common or rare? 

I think what’s happening here is that conservatives have highlighted an issue which the overwhelming majority of people in the country consider intolerable and progressives don’t like that. They don’t like it because it’s politically inconvenient for them to talk about. There’s no useful set of talking points at hand to defend squatters and of course they don’t want to admit that conservatives have a point. It’s just easier to try to tone police conservatives for bringing it up in the first place. 

Remember the migrant who was recently arrested after making a TikTok video advising other migrants to take over empty homes? The left-wing news site Popular Information was quick to downplay that, portraying migrant Leonel Moreno as a “provocateur” and an “artist.”

On March 17, a provocateur named Leonel Moreno posted a video on TikTok where he purports to give instructions on how people can successfully “squat” in other people’s houses. It was one of many videos he made about how to exploit American law. Moreno, an undocumented immigrant who describes himself as an “artist,” appears to post deliberately inflammatory content to grow his online following. Moreno frequently films himself screaming in Spanish and previously posted a video encouraging people to support a teenager who allegedly shot a tourist in the leg in Times Square. 

In the case of the squatting video, Moreno’s tactics worked. It prompted a flood of coverage about squatting by undocumented immigrants, particularly by right-wing outlets.

Author Judd Legum doesn’t use the word “seizing” here but that’s the gist of what he’s saying. Conservatives are seizing on squatting. Whenever there’s a story that is bad news for progressives, the story is no longer the story. Instead they make the conservative reaction the story. We’ve all see this a thousand times by now but the left never gets tired of it as a way to change the subject.

Meanwhile the New York Post has written about five different squatting incidents in the last month, each one more exasperating than the last.

Last week, a pair of squatters at a Jamaica duplex sued the legal owners of a $930,000 home, claiming they were locked out despite establishing tenancy — and included a Shake Shack receipt as “proof.”

In Flushing, squatter Brian Rodriguez demanded an $18,000 ransom to move out of the four-bedroom $1 million house he claimed rights to — with cops even handcuffing the rightful owner when she showed up.

One Big Apple case turned deadly when a pair of teen squatters allegedly killed property owner Nadia Vitels after she showed up at the East 31st apartment owned by her late mom on March 12.

And last week, federal agents raided a Bronx home where a troublesome troupe of gun-toting migrants were squatting and causing chaos in the neighborhood.

The most recent example involved Brooklyn squatters who broke into an empty house last summer, began stealing from neighbors and eventually set the home on fire.

There’s a pretty clear reason the situation is worse in New York than in most other parts of the country. It only takes 30 days to establish residency in New York. After that, removing a squatter can be a lengthy and expensive legal process.

“My tenants only pay me one month’s rent, and they know the game. They know after 30 days you cannot evict them,” said Hong Chen, who spent thousands of dollars trying to get squatters out of a home in Maspeth.

“They turned off the hot water and then reported that they had no hot water. It’s a $250 fine per day, up to $15,000 punishable by five years in jail,” said homeowner Susan Mascara, who used up her savings paying for seven years of upkeep on the Bayside home she inherited from her mother. “I’m in debt. My credit cards are pretty much maxed out.” 

“I’m not getting any rent and I’m paying the gas and electric every month,” said John Sochran, who’s using his pension money for expenses on the College Point home he hoped would provide retirement income.

No one should have to put up with this but progressives would prefer that homeowners suffer in silence. Let’s face it, they don’t really care. In most cases, they empathize with the squatters more than they do the homeowners, which is another reason they’d rather not talk about this topic. This could be happening every week somewhere in New York but the left will always downplay it as a local news story not worthy of wider attention or corrective action.

Normal people should continue to ignore the left’s tone policing and take note of these outrageous incidents whenever and wherever they occur. The law in New York needs to be changed. Progressives who disagree should be forced to make their case in defense of squatting before the public. Good luck with that.