From: one-if-by-land@concord.com   
      
   When the subject of people continuing to live in a house that was foreclosed   
   several people here said just pay em off - the squatters - and be done with   
   it.   
   Of course this is just everyday extortion, which too is illegal.   
   But then add in the dynamics of a free market of creative individuals and   
   you get the next natural progression.   
   When you cave to extortion its just the first spade cut in your financial   
   grave.   
   Get a rope.......   
      
   ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++   
      
   As homes foreclose in U.S., squatters move in   
   By Jason Szep Sun May 18, 8:19 PM ET   
      
   BROCKTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - They enter through a broken first-floor   
   window each night to sleep on a moldy bed in the abandoned four-family house   
   at 827 Main Street, part of a new generation of squatters emboldened by   
   America's housing foreclosure crisis.   
      
   "For squatters, foreclosed homes like this are like a camp-ground with free   
   camping," says real-estate broker Marc Charney, a foreclosure specialist, as   
   he enters the home in Brockton, Massachusetts, and shines a flash-light at a   
   mattress where homeless people have been sleeping each night.   
      
   Squatting is on the rise across the United States as foreclosures surge,   
   eviction notices mount and homes go unsold for months, complicating the   
   worst U.S. housing slump in a quarter century and forcing real-estate   
   brokers to enlist the help of law enforcement and courts to sell empty   
   houses.   
      
   In some regions, squatting is taking on new twists to include real-estate   
   scams in which thieves "rent out" abandoned homes they don't own. Others   
   involve "professional squatters" who move from one abandoned home to another   
   posing as tenants who seek cash from banks as a condition to leave the   
   premises -- a process known by real-estate brokers as "cash for key."   
      
   "There are people who move in and know exactly who to contact and say 'If   
   you want this house, why don't you come out here and offer me cash,"' said   
   Detective Erin Camphouse of the Los Angeles Police Department's Real Estate   
   Fraud Unit.   
      
   "It's just cheaper for the banks to do that rather than going into the   
   courts," she said. "The squatters are getting sophisticated and turning it   
   on these banks who own the properties."   
      
   She cited another case in which a Los Angeles man recently "leased" three   
   abandoned homes to unsuspecting renters through Craig's List, the online   
   classified advertising company. The renters paid first and last month   
   deposits, moved their belongings in and lived in the homes for several   
   months.   
      
   "In one case, there were loose ends of rehab on the house that needed to be   
   done and the crook wasn't coming through or wasn't completing it. So they   
   offered to do it instead of paying rent. They put down tiles and carpet and   
   all that kind of stuff. And it wasn't until the sheriff put the lockout   
   notice on the door that they realized something was wrong."   
      
   POSING AS TENANTS   
      
   New Jersey real-estate broker Bill Flagg is in a different type of legal   
   tussle with occupants of a foreclosed home who refuse to leave in   
   Plainfield, a city of 47,829 people.   
      
   "We know the people are squatters. But we have had the cops there. We had   
   the electricity shut off and the cops wouldn't put the people out. We have   
   to go to court to get them out. They claim to be tenants," Flagg said.   
      
   Such cases of squatters posing as tenants are on the rise, said Bill   
   Collins, president of the New Jersey chapter of the National Association of   
   Real Estate Brokers.   
      
   "These people claim that they have a lease but they can't find it. And the   
   property owner has been removed from the property or been foreclosed on, so   
   they have no interest in confirming if this person is a valid tenant," he   
   said.   
      
   "So now you have squatters who are assuming that they are tenants and have   
   rights to some degree to stay in the property until we can go through the   
   court system to get them out.   
      
   "And they have caught wind that what most of these banks are doing is giving   
   cash for keys, so cash for eviction -- anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500. So   
   here you have a squatter who goes into a property, takes up residence, tells   
   you that he is a tenant, goes to court and says that he is a tenant.   
      
   "Who can prove otherwise?"   
      
   California real-estate broker Steve Smallson said he finds about three   
   squatting cases a month, compared to none last year, in his region of   
   Woodland Hills, a middle-class district of Los Angeles. That includes a case   
   in April involving a foreclosed home worth $1 million where police were   
   called after neighbors reported squatters filming pornography in the house.   
      
   The problem is compounded in some states by the weakening economy and its   
   effects on America's homeless, who number about 744,000 each night according   
   to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, an advocacy organization in   
   Washington.   
      
   "The rise of squatting is a natural consequence of these properties sitting   
   there empty caused by the whole foreclosure crisis," said Steve Berg, a vice   
   president at the alliance.   
      
   (Reporting by Jason Szep; Editing by Eddie Evans)   
      
   http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080519/us_nm/usa_housing_squatters_   
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