Squatters Put Las Vegas Valley Residents on Edge

Squatters living in the Las Vegas Valley have taken over empty houses in struggling working-class neighborhoods and in upscale planned communities such as Summerlin.

1 minute read

May 16, 2016, 11:00 AM PDT

By urbanguy


Las Vegas Sprawl

trekandshoot / Shutterstock

Ian Lovett of the New York Times reports:

Even as construction cranes have returned to the Las Vegas Strip and the unemployment rate has fallen to single digits, the (squatter invasion] situation is getting worse: the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has received more calls about squatters each year since it began tracking the problem; there were more than 4,000 complaints last year, up 43 percent from 2014 and more than twice as many as in 2012. Residents say the explosion of squatters has shattered their sense of security, leaving them wary of any new neighbors at a time the city is still trying to climb back from the depths of the recession.

Saturday, May 14, 2016 in The Seattle Times

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