Typical of the garbage that comes out of liberal academia these days is a paper from the University of North Florida purporting to show that Jacksonville is the “eviction capital” of the state.
Why that would be relevant even if true is baffling.
The student-produced study claims to show that more people are evicted in Jacksonville than in other Florida cities.
Maybe because they don’t pay their bills?
Local media pounced on the story, of course, drawing the wrong conclusions.
One reason is that it fits the “affordable housing” narrative so popular in the media. This is the claim that many people cannot afford a place to live.
But such claims never point at government heaping taxes and regulations on the private sector as a cause of the alleged problem.
It is always because evil people seek profits (just as the fake news companies do).
Naturally, government being the problem, more government is the solution.
A News4Jax editorial disguised as a news story suggested that tenant’s rights legislation would be restorative justice.
This is another socialist solution to the problem of profits. Laws giving tenants “protection” have resulted in cases across the nation where private property has been seized by squatters and it is difficult to impossible to get them out.’
In about half the states, laws are so lopsided that bums can take over private property just by refusing to leave.
The Washington Examiner reported how homeowner Adele Andaloro inherited the New York home of her parents when they died, but as she was in the process of preparing the home to sell it, the locks for her home suddenly were changed. She discovered that squatters had moved into her house. In the state of New York, squatters have rights after 30 days.
She – the victim – was arrested.
In Washington state, a man’s home became occupied by a squatter who refused to pay. The homeowner has been barred from his $2 million home.
Squatters in Atlanta have taken over an estimated 1,200 homes that belong to other people, according to the National Rental Home Council.
Pacific Legal Foundation explains the problem. “Tenant’s rights” laws give bums who aren’t tenants the same rights as people who actually pay rent.
What is needed is laws that give property owners more protection.
Pacific Legal says, “The state of Florida has taken the lead on this, passing a law just this year that requires law enforcement to remove a squatter from your property unless the squatter can show he paid rent in the past or has a lease. We need more laws like this in other states.”
As is often the case, academia and the media are aligned against private property – a basic component of capitalism — and on the side of lawbreakers. Their solution usually is for government to provide shelter, along with food, clothing , health care and other basic needs.
“Public housing” is almost always a cure worse than the problem.
If people are getting evicted because they won’t or can’t pay for their housing, the local, state and federal governments should be working to make it easier for the private sector to provide safe, comfortable, lower-cost housing.
