A video on X (formerly Twitter) with over 3 million views provides step-by-step instructions for living rent-free in Portland. The key step in the process, after occupying a vacant property, is just this: “when the owner showed up, I politely explained that this is my house now.” It’s satire. But good satire is just close enough to reality that the underlying critique is impossible to dismiss. The video, which has been watched 100,000 more times since the first sentence above was written, reveals a growing sentiment in the Pacific Northwest that it’s easier to occupy someone else’s property than it is to remove a squatter from your property.
In Tacoma, just down the road from Seattle, a property maintenance supervisor noticed a woman enter a housing community’s vacant apartment. After forcibly entering through the locked door, he and a security officer discovered around ten people living inside. Thankfully, the group left the premises when asked, but the dryer had been stolen, and the rooms trashed, with blinds and doors broken and large holes punched through walls. The damage will cost the property at least $5,000 in time and repairs.
It’s not the first time this property has had to remove squatters from vacant units. In fact, the property’s managers say it happens nearly every other day.
One may wonder why this kind of thing has become so prevalent. Bad public policies deserve a major part of the blame. Last year, Tacoma voters passed Measure 1, an ordinance aimed at limiting rent increases and evictions. The initiative was spearheaded by a grassroots organization called Tacoma for All, who has close ties to the Tacoma Pierce County Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). A mission of the DSA, according to their website, is to use “state action to aquire private property and transform it into public democratically controlled housing.” In other words, to abolish private housing and home ownership entirely. Management for the housing community points to the ordinance as a major obstacle to maintaining a safe living environment for all residents: it “has really made a bad situation worse for multifamily owners and residents….It appears as though bad behavior is rewarded since the landlord’s hands are tied.”
And it’s not like those who choose to illegally occupy a vacant unit don’t have other options. Safe, legal options for people in need of shelter and housing are available in Tacoma. According to the Pierce County Homeless Coalition, there are 65 beds available at overnight shelters across the region as of last week. The Tacoma Housing Authority claims that it can provide up to 90 days of emergency shelter to 278 people every day and lists 16 organizations providing more long-term, transitional shelter to people in need.
There should be — and there are — options for people who cannot afford a place to live. But occupying a vacant property with zero consequences is not one of them. Squatters can cost housing communities thousands of dollars to restore a unit. Not only that, but every unit occupied by squatters is one less available to a rent-paying household who needs it. The reality is “free housing” doesn’t exist. If the people inside an apartment aren’t paying, someone else is.
