Florida's Cops: Vacant, foreclosed houses attract homeless squatters

From: The Orlando Sentinel.

Police think family members arrested at an Ocoee home this week are part of a network of squatters who live in houses facing foreclosure.

Detectives are investigating whether three other houses in the city are occupied by people with no legal authority to be there, Ocoee police Sgt. Mike Bryant said. At least some of those residents are thought to be related, he said.

A day-care center was being operated in one of the homes until the state Department of Children and Families shut it down in July. More people were suspected to be living in unsold town houses not long ago.

These takeovers of empty homes have increased as foreclosures have skyrocketed, authorities said. In July, the Orlando area had the eighth-highest foreclosure activity in the nation. Florida has thousands of empty dwellings where the homeless can stay.

"It is common to run into them from time to time," said Manny del Valle, president of Foreclosure Cleanup Pros, which tidies up vacant homes. Neighbors "don't want to get involved, and these people will live there for months."

It's not just that neighbors don't call the police. Officers can't question people about their presence in a home unless a crime appears to have been committed or someone makes a legitimate complaint, Bryant said.

The foreclosed house on Plumberry Avenue, where the arrests occurred Tuesday, was being monitored from the outside monthly, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage said. A company representative saw someone appeared to be living there but noticed no signs of disrepair, spokeswoman Teri Schrettenbrunner said.

The bank had no right to investigate further or conduct its own maintenance unless the house was vacant and not being maintained, she said.

A mother, her son, his wife and her three children were living in the 3,800-square-foot house with a large pool and fireplace, a police report shows. A representative of the new owner called police after he changed the locks and put up a "no trespassing" sign, then returned to find a bathroom window broken and people inside.

The water was shut off, and the toilets were filled with excrement, investigators said. A pit bull was tied up with no water in a closed garage stinking from animal waste, according to the report.

The adults were arrested on charges of child neglect, burglary with property damage of more than $1,000, animal cruelty and theft of utilities. DCF placed the youngsters, ages 12, 11 and 9, with a relative. Two other children visiting the home belong to a woman who lives in the house where the day-care center was operating and were returned to her, Bryant said. Orange County Animal Control took the dog.