"Adopt" vacant Northside houses, more comments

(Foreclosure map, Minneapolis)

Here is the comment somebody left for me at Stenback's
"Behind The Morgage" blog, responding to my anecdote
about whether Minneapolis police will actually respond to
reports of squatters, like the squatter activity I witnessed at
2125 Lyndale Ave. N.

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Johnny,

That's an excellent story. I can add my own recent experience as well.

My wife and I live in Steven's Square. Much like the "open air drug markets" of North Side, the parking lot at Hennepin and Groveland does a similar active business.

We recently had a neighbor in our building start sharing his apartment with drug dealers. Within days, people were trying to buzz into the building (to get past the security door) at all hours, we would see deals being made in the hallways, and find people passed out on the stairs. We also started having numerous fire alarms caused by smoke from their apartment.

Working with police and the apartment management (who was quite active in helping, including hiring security guards) it still took months to get this guy evicted. After he was evicted, people he had "borrowed" keys to, continued to squat in the apartment, and that took additional weeks to deal with, involving numerous calls to police.

My wife and I have been looking in the North East area for homes, and one of my major concerns is with the numerous foreclosures and squatters. My experience is similar to yours and I have no end of skepticism about this plan.
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The comment was left in direct response to something
I said on that blog, so I feel it's OK to use it here. The
Behind The Mortgage blog rocks, and I learn so much
over there.