Woman forced to live with squatter in Detroit home

[garbon]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/woman-forced-live-squatter-detroit-home-170128148.html

Heidi Peterson could not believe what was in her Detroit home when she returned after being away for a about year.

A woman named Missionary-Tracey Elaine Blair was living there.

Blair refuses to leave the home. And Peterson and doesn't have the means go anywhere else.

So, in a bizarre twist that includes legal matters, both women are living in the same house: Owner and alleged squatter.

"She thinks that this is a program in Detroit to take people's homes and fix them up and then she gets to keep them," Peterson told MyFoxDetroit.

Peterson said that Blair changed locks, replaced appliances and worked on the plumbing in the older home.  Peterson purchased the home in the historic Boston-Edison neighborhood of Detroit for $23,000, and told MyFoxDetroit she left last year when it was in need of repairs.

Blair, a former tenant of Peterson at the house, said she was evicted in Feb. 2011. "We had to vacate because the boiler was damaged," Blair said.  "I took all my books and my writings, but my (furniture was) still left in (there)."

Blair says she is not squatting and has a lease.

While a squatter does have a legal right to the property, the homeowner cannot just remove a squatter by force, according to the law, MyFoxDetroit notes.  So in this case, like many others, the homeowner Peterson must prove she is the rightful owner of the property in civil court and then seek eviction.

So in the meantime, Blair and Peterson are living under the same roof.

The television piece showed Blair had placed personal photographs along the mantle and even changed the curtains at the house.

Peterson expressed concern for her safety, and the safety of her one-year-old daughter.

"I don't know what her capabilities are," Peterson said. "We're afraid of her mindset of entitlement."

Blair, who is a write-in candidate for president said, "I'm an advocate for affordable housing.  That's a part of my campaign," she said."I signed an oath pledging that I would fight for affordable homes."

Squatting has been an issue in Detroit, where a family recently bought a dream home on the city's west side only to find suspected squatters stripped it of copper, appliances and plumbing.

Similar stories resonate around the country, for example squatter  staked claim a vacant house in Littleton, Colo. and there are familiar instances  in other cities.

Detroit's Peterson will continue to take her case to court, but in the meantime the unusual living arrangement continues.

[Syt]

Blair, who is a write-in candidate for president

[Caliga]

Ha, something similar happened to my parents when the fired the live-in manager of their campground and the guy flat-out refused to leave.  So basically my dad was going up there every weekend to work, since he couldn't hire a replacement, and had to sleep in a crappy old trailer in the campground itself while that fucking douche got to live in my dad's house (which was actually fairly nice).

Eventually the law came down on his ass and he was forced out, but it look almost an entire year.

[MadImmortalMan]

 

[The Brain]

I sometimes squat at the side of the road.

[garbon]

I sometimes squat at the side of the road.

Ok DraftWarMongers

[CountDeMoney]

Blair, who is a write-in candidate for president

Hey, she signed an oath pledging that she would fight for affordable homes.

[MadImmortalMan]

Hey, she signed an oath pledging that she would fight for affordable homes.

Physically.

[Phillip V]

Where is the father of the one-year-old child?

[MadImmortalMan]

Where is the father of the one-year-old child?

Gone a year ago, most likely. 

[Phillip V]

Where is the father of the one-year-old child?

Gone a year ago, most likely. 

Put your tongue away. We must weep for the abandoned mixed-race child.

[Maximus]

Ok Lettow

[jimmy olsen]

Ok Lettow

Isn't Phillip V an American who is dark skinned south/southeast asian?

[Maximus]

Possibly. Your point?

[Martinus]

Ok Lettow

Isn't Phillip V an American who is dark skinned south/southeast asian?

Maximus's question notwithstanding, why the use of "American" there? Why would it be relevant to your otherwise failed point?