Squatters In Abandoned Homes A Concern For Cleveland

In Cleveland, Ohio, a recent editorial in The Cleveland Plain Dealer expresses concern about some of the problems that may arise if large numbers of the city's homeless population begin to take up residency in some of Cleveland's 10,000 abandoned dwellings.

• On the human side, many people who are chronically homeless need help with mental illnesses or substance abuse problems, but [Executive Director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, Brian] Davis' fears about outreach workers trespassing on private property to serve squatters or getting themselves tangled up with criminals mistaken for homeless people are more than valid.

• On the property side, Cleveland already has a huge problem with abandoned homes. Even under the best circumstances, a long-abandoned house deteriorates. That process is hastened when thieves strip it of fixtures to sell as scrap, or other kinds of crime move in. Add homeless people to the problem of abandoned dwellings, and it's only a matter of time until the first structure fire. And then the first one that claims lives.

For more, see Squatters put their lives and others' property in the balance.

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