Squatting in the United States
In the United States, squatting occurs when a person enters land that does not belong to them without lawful permission and proceeds to act in the manner of an owner.
Historically, squatting occurred during the settlement of the Midwest when colonial European settlers established land rights and during the California Gold Rush.
Shanty towns returned to the US after the Great Recession (2007–2009) and in the 2010s, there were increasing numbers of people occupying foreclosed homes using fraudulent documents.
In New York City, squatters occupied 32 buildings, some of which the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB) then helped to legalize.
[2] With victory in the American Revolution, the new government considered evicting the squatters from areas that were now federally owned public lands.
[3] In 1785, soldiers under General Josiah Harmar were sent into the Ohio country to destroy the crops and burn down the homes of any squatters they found living there.
Jacksonian Democrats like Thomas Hart Benton wanted the support of poor farmers, who reproduced rapidly, had little cash, and were eager to acquire cheap land in the West.
Democrats avoided words like "squatter" and regarded "actual settlers" as those who gained title to land, settled on it, and then improved upon it by building a house, clearing the ground, and planting crops.
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act of 1862, which was enacted to foster the reallocation of "unsettled" land in the West.
After five years of positively contributing to the homestead, the applicant could file a request for the deed to the property, which entailed sending paperwork to the General Land Office in Washington, D.C., and, from there, "valid claims were granted patent free and clear".
Buildings which had been left abandoned around the Little Tokyo area in Los Angeles were occupied by African American migrant workers moving to California to work in the armaments factories.
[26] Sovereign citizens in Georgia have squatted million dollar homes in DeKalb and Rockdale counties using fake deeds.
[28] In the San Francisco Bay Area, local NBC News reported that people were even squatting on their own foreclosed properties.
[29] Michael Feroli, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase, has commented on the boon to the economy of "squatter rent" or the extra income made available for spending by people not fulfilling their mortgage repayments.
[31] In June 1982, ACORN constructed a tent city in Washington, D.C., and organized a congressional meeting to call attention to the plight of the homeless.
This brought in a period of local urban homesteading where tax delinquent properties on the city level were included in the program.
[32] Between June 15 and August 2, 1985, ACORN supported homeless people to take over 25 city-owned buildings in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn.
[34] In order to preserve democratic decision making and affordability to the buildings the squatters organized themselves into collective members of a Mutual Housing Association.
In a mutual housing association, neighborhood residents form a collective, contributing some money and a lot of sweat equity to rehabilitate buildings for their own use in return for public support and limited ownership.
[34] In 1988, Operation Homestead (OH) in Seattle began occupying buildings and negotiating their sale to nonprofit low-income housing organizations.
No such arrangements were made, but some squatters attempted to challenge the contract, arguing that adverse possession protected their ownership claim.
[62] The Pueblo Chieftain, a local newspaper in Colorado, suggested that indicators of squatting might include people carrying in jugs of water or living by candlelight.
