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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Squatters who illegally occupy vacant homes or buildings are not always contributing to apathy or social disorder, says a new University of Michigan study that will be presented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA).
It can actually be a good situation for a neighborhood to have these individuals move into abandoned homes, lessening the chance of them becoming sites for drug users or burned by arsonists, the study indicates.
In urban communities nationwide, such as Detroit, which are experiencing population decline, homes have been abandoned by owners or left unattended by private investors who often purchase them in bundles of tens, hundreds, or even thousands.
"While attempts to revitalize a city rely on private ownership to induce responsible care for property, that isn't always an option," said study author Claire Herbert, a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned a PhD in sociology.
That's where squatters come in.
Herbert, who will be an assistant professor at Drexel University in the fall, interviewed more than 60 people, including squatters, city authorities, and residents between 2013-2015, while also gathering ethnographic data on illegal property use from various sources, such as community meetings and squatted areas across Detroit.
Surprisingly, many of the residents in the study welcome squatters to keep abandoned homes occupied. Squatting, however, was not considered acceptable to residents if the home was still occupied or if the legal owner was maintaining and overseeing the property.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday August 23 2016, @07:01PM
Renting means you're a slave to the whims of the credit rating agencies and your rental history.
Whims? First off, your "rental history" is generally self-made. In most cases, if you pay on time, don't have raucous parties that get the police called, and leave the place in roughly as good condition as when you found it, it's really doubtful a landlord will give you anything less than a stellar recommendation if contacted.
And while the exact formula for credit scores is a secret, the components that make it up are clearly stated. Pay bills on time -- that's the biggest one. Have a history of paying off loans. Apply for some credit cards, and use them once in a while, but keep low balances. Try to keep most of the accounts for a long time (i.e., don't close and open new credit accounts). Don't apply for new credit on a regular basis.
That's about it. Is it annoying for some people to have a loan and make payments on it for a while? Sure. But there are lots of ways of doing that -- heck, a few years ago I took out an auto loan just because the interest rate was so low. I've invested the extra money instead and have made a lot more on it than I've lost in a small amount of interest. And I know some people are freaked out by the very concept of credit cards, but you don't need to do much with them. Just use them once in a while to keep them active.
These little steps may be annoying, but they're actually convenient options for most people. I don't actually have to think at all about maintaining my credit, and my score has been above 800 for many years.
You can easily find yourself homeless if you have bad history, or worse, no credit/rent history at all.
What's your alternative? I agree that there are bad things about credit ratings -- in particular, errors can show up with surprising frequency and they can be a pain to remove. But you don't seem to be concerned about stuff like that -- you just hate the whole concept.
But what's the alternative? Years ago, the way this worked was -- people tended to live in small towns, and everybody knew each other. You'd go down to the local bank and talk to "Bill," who probably knew your dad from the club or whatever. Bill introduced you to the loan officer, and they gave you a loan. You want an apartment? You go talk to "Sam," whose wife was on a church committee with your aunt. He introduces you to a landlord and vouches for your good behavior at church camp 10 years ago.
That's the way people used to evaluate credit and rental history. If you live in a town for a while and get to know people, you'll likely still be able to do stuff like that. But absent information like that, just how are apartment owners supposed to trust that you're not going to be a "tenant from hell" or skip town without paying rent or whatever?
Even if you can prove you have the money they often won't even consider your application.
Some won't. But I've seen a LOT of apartment complexes which have policies like, "Demonstrated income equal to X times the rent amount OR verified bank account balance with minimum of Y."
The system has flaws. But what's your alternative method for a landlord to evaluate some young person who walks in and has no references, no history of making regular payments to anyone ever, has no local ties, and just wants to rent his space?