Evictees Are Getting Militant

Ex-Owners Turning Aggressive in Efforts to Resist Leaving

"One former homeowner rigged his front door with coffeepots filled with boiling water. Another left piles of ferret feces. Hidden compartments have been used as living spaces, with people hiding in attics, tool sheds and garages to elude police.
In the D.C. suburbs, a new class of squatter has emerged, as people illegally remain in homes after they have lost them to the bank. Some have become aggressive in their efforts to stay, setting booby traps to ward off police."

"A national survey released last month showing the impact of widespread foreclosures found that an estimated 42 percent of those who have lost their homes in the housing crisis now have no fixed address. People being forced out of foreclosed homes represent a quarter of those facing evictions in Loudoun; the others are renters who have stopped paying their landlords. The number of writ of possession procedures, a civil eviction process that can take months, more than doubled since 2005, from 639 to 1,310 last year.
"All of a sudden, a lot of longtime renters, a lot of families, are being evicted, with little or no notice," said Vickie Koth, executive director of the Good Shepherd Alliance, an Ashburn-based homelessness nonprofit group. "It's overwhelming."