Catch 22...AGAIN!!-----WA's Spokane County Can Now Hold Property Owners Accountable for Letting Squatters Camp Out

Spokane County, Washington, has had an idea: - Ward Clark

A new ordinance puts property owners on the hook for the cost if the county has to clean up a homeless enclave on their property.

Spokane County now has the authority to recover abatement costs from private property owners if the owners permit encampments that create public health and safety concerns on the estate.

There's one possible downside I can see to all this: 

• Some of the squatters may not be willing to leave a property just because the owner tells them to.

The county code does not seem to hold any exemption for the simple refusal of a property owner's request.

For example, a vacant lot, owned by an elderly man who lives alone; he goes to the encampment, asks the homeless dwelling therein to leave, and they laugh at him and say no. What is he then to do? Try to run them off at gunpoint? Tempting, perhaps, but it's hard to see Spokane County going along with that.