Recent murders and attacks on homeowners by suspected squatters puts spotlight on issue.
PHOENIX—A property manager in Phoenix says that dealing with itinerant “squatters” is one of the least pleasant parts of the real estate business.
Sometimes, you can’t control what happens, Calvin Favata with Your Holdings told The Epoch Times.
Rashaad Johnson, 29, had been renting a Your Holdings unit in South Phoenix for about two months and never had any trouble. But he was a “nice guy” who sometimes let squatters who lived in the vacant house across the street use his bathroom shower, Favata said.
Favata said the shower situation soon “got out of hand,” and the company had to stop it.
“We even put padlocks and deadbolt [locks] on the bathroom doors so they couldn’t use it,” Favata said.
On Oct. 14, one of the squatters asked Johnson to use the shower, but when he refused, the man dressed in body armor allegedly told Johnson he was going to get his gun.