Atlanta property owner says squatters hindering his ability to build affordable housing units

US News

By Melissa Koenig

An Atlanta property owner says a group of squatters are hindering his efforts to build affordable housing on his nine-acre lot.

David Morris said he’s struggling to remove the group from his property after the city issued a moratorium on evictions.

“I’m not going to build it until all of the tenants are out,” Morris told Fox 5 Atlanta.

“You know, start getting this place cleaned up.”

Morris, who now lives in California, said he agreed about 10 years ago to allow four people to live on the land of his former nonprofit — the Lakewood Environmental Arts Foundation — without paying rent if they agreed to care for the property.

But when he shut down his nonprofit during the pandemic, he found out that there were far more people than the four people on the property.

“The people who were living on the land started having other people live on the land, their friends,” Morris explained.

“I tried to file eviction, and the city of Atlanta said, ‘Sorry, we have a moratorium on evictions right now.’”

The situation grew more dire amid mass protests of a law enforcement training facility last year, when he said the “entire medical staff” of the “Stop Cop City” movement were camped out on his property.

“There were about 30 campers and then police came in and pulled them out of their tents,” Morris said.

But remaining are eight squatters, whom he is trying to evict through the Georgia court system.

In the meantime, Morris said, he has been contacted by local authorities and told to clean up the property, which the squatters have left in a state of decay.

“It’s frustrating that I’m having to spend so much money,” he told Fox 5.

“I spent $10,000 on cleaning up garbage from vagrants,” he claimed.

At least one brazen squatter has also tried to file a $190,000 counterclaim against Morris in an effort to stay on the land, but it was dismissed when the plaintiff failed to show up to court, he said.

Last week, Morris was granted a writ of possession, which landlords must obtain when seeking to end a squatter’s rights to a property.

He is planning to use the legal document to force the squatters out, at which point, he said, he will install fencing and put up “No Trespassing” signs.