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Gig Economy Company Launches Uber, But For Evicting People (vice.com) 244

Posted by BeauHD from the profiting-on-pandemics dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: SINCE COVID-19 MANY AMERICANS FELL BEHIND IN ALL ASPECTS," reads the website copy. The button below this statement is not for a GoFundMe, or a petition for calling for rent relief. Instead, it is the following call to action, from a company called Civvl: "Be hired as eviction crew." During a time of great economic and general hardship, Civvl aims to be, essentially, Uber, but for evicting people. Seizing on a pandemic-driven nosedive in employment and huge uptick in number-of-people-who-can't-pay-their-rent, Civvl aims to make it easy for landlords to hire process servers and eviction agents as gig workers.

Civvl aims to marry the gig economy with the devastation of a pandemic, complete with signature gig startup language like "be your own boss," and "flexible hours," and "looking for self-motivated individuals with positive attitudes:" "FASTEST GROWING MONEY MAKING GIG DUE TO COVID-19," its website says. "Literally thousands of process servers are needed in the coming months due courts being backed up in judgements that needs to be served to defendants." The company, at first glance, appears to be some kind of _Nathan For You-_esque prank: siccing precarious gig jobs onto vulnerable people. But Civvl is connected to a larger -- and real -- gig economy company called OnQall, which describes itself as an app that provides "on-demand task services to non-urban communities beyond main city areas." OnQall is the developer behind other, more believable TaskRabbit-esque apps, like LawnFixr, CleanQwik, and MoveQwik. Given the fact that Civvl is advertising all over the country and that OnQall, though not popular, does exist, it seems as though Civvl actually is an attempt to simplify the process of evicting people who cannot pay their rent during a pandemic.
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Gig Economy Company Launches Uber, But For Evicting People More

Gig Economy Company Launches Uber, But For Evicting People

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  • Be your own boss? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @04:43PM (#60529156)

    More like "be your own asshole". Your government fucked up the handling of the pandemic? Get paid to kick people who are already down and throw them in the fucking streets!

    • Re:Be your own boss? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by EnigmaticSource ( 649695 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @04:50PM (#60529184)

      Yeah, this...
      This is pretty much the most dystopian manifestation of the "gig economy" that Lex Luthor could dream up

      • Lex Luthor wasn't that evil (Score:5, Insightful)

        by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:07PM (#60529290)
        in most incarnations. He was driven made by Jealousy of Superman and occasionally power mad (like when he merged with Brainiac).

        This? This is grotesque. This is also very likely an attempt to distance companies from the goons they hire as enforcers. It has a *lot* of terrifying implications. Eventually there's going to be a shoot out between one of these "gig" workers and their victim, and the company will be blameless because they don't have any employees.

        It's too late to stop this sort of abuse in motion. We need to start voting people into office who will ban it. They _will_ come for you eventually.

        • Re:Lex Luthor wasn't that evil (Score:5, Insightful)

          by ls671 ( 1122017 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:16PM (#60529332) Homepage

          It's also kind of recursive like GNU. When you get evicted, you receive an invitation to join the forces to evict other people until there is nobody else to evict. It thus becomes some kind of ponzi scheme as well.

          • It's also kind of recursive like GNU. When you get evicted, you receive an invitation to join the forces to evict other people until there is nobody else to evict. It thus becomes some kind of ponzi scheme as well.

            You mean like "Repo Men" ?

          • Re:Lex Luthor wasn't that evil (Score:5, Funny)

            by Daetrin ( 576516 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @06:38PM (#60529618)
            Or you just join them preemptively.

            Miracle Max: Move out, or I'll call the Eviction Squad!

            Fezzik: I'm on the Eviction Squad.

            Miracle Max, looking up: You _are_ the Eviction Squad!

            .

        • We need to start voting people into office who will ban it.

          That ship has sailed. No-one who would see this as bad is going to get any sort of power in the United States.
          If the working class ever get any sort of class consciousness there is going to be blood in the streets.

    • Perspective (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:16PM (#60529336)

      I have an acquaintance who inherited his family's house. He rented it out and lives in an apartment closer to where he works. After COVID, he got laid off, so he's trying to evict the people living in his house (who stopped paying rent *before* COVID hit) as he doesn't need, and can't afford, his apartment anymore.

      So who is in the wrong here? Would he be the asshole for paying someone to evict deadbeat tenants who are living in his own house?

      • Re:Perspective (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Aristos Mazer ( 181252 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:55PM (#60529486)

        Evictions are sometimes necessary. I don't object to them when the economics require it. But it's the gig economy aspect that bothers me -- Uber has tried to wash its hands of any liability arising from driving... eviction carries even more liability problems... trying to separate the profit side from the responsibility side in evictions makes me concerned. I'd want to see a lot of regulations around this -- and a clear law that declares any such contractors are formally employees of the eviction company.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jythie ( 914043 )
          Yeah... repo men have always been a rather sketchy lot, barely working within the law as it was (with all sorts of 'good faith' carve outs for doing things that would get normal people arrested), but moving them to a gig system where the people posting the ads have even less control and liability over amateurs performing acts that can get violent? Bad idea...

          I am also thinking back... serving eviction paperwork is one of the more dangerous assignments for officer.. which means such gigs are likely to incl

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by gweihir ( 88907 )

            Well, the people ordering the evictions will probably often not care much whether the old tenants get thrown out in the streets as they were or in body-bags. And the occasional evicter getting shot? Not a problem either, this is gig-work and many more are dying to do it.

      • Re:Perspective (Score:4, Insightful)

        by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @06:24PM (#60529594)

        Special, non-representative case is special, non-representative case.

      • Easily answered. I say it's the governments. If they had seen the covid-19 crisis properly, then the initial response should have included rent and mortgage holidays, as well as a freeze on loan repayments. Highest priority should have been on keeping the hospitals functioning and the food moving.

        Or maybe we'll never have a pandemic worse than this one. Keep your fingers crossed.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by sjames ( 1099 )

        The first and foremost assholes are the legislators who didn't properly pause the economy during the lockdown and who aren't even attempting to gracefully exit from it.

        In the case of your acquaintance, it's a bit different since the tenants stopped paying before COVID.

    • Re:Be your own boss? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:30PM (#60529386)

      Yeah, I can't imagine if you're looking for work due to COVID that your first line of recourse is to get a gig booting people from their homes due to COVID. And if you ARE wanting to do that job, you're a big enough bag of dicks you probably should just be upper level management or a politician anyway.

    • i am certain that county sheriffs will willingly allow an override of their duties by gig economy types

    • "Be hired as eviction crew."

      This may just be the most 2020 thing that has happened so far in 2020.

  • Easy way to make money (Score:5, Funny)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @04:48PM (#60529172)

    If you are being evicted, hire on to this company so they will literally pay you to evict yourself! Then you can be sure your stuff will be well cared for as they move it out for you, while you are being paid.

    • Then you can gather together with other Civvl employees and demand benefits like fair wages and housing. Oh wait, I don't think that completes the circle correctly.

  • Many states have moratoriums in place on evictions due to COVID-19, and I believe a federal executive order on stopping evictions combined with emergency grants for landlords and mortgage holders went into effect recently.

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-working-stop-evictions-protect-americans-homes-covid-19-pandemic/ [whitehouse.gov]

    Seems like a really BAD time to launch such a business. Maybe they should hold off and wait for 2021.

    • That's only because it's an election year (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:09PM (#60529304)
      and there are a ton of holes in those eviction moratoriums. Especially down South. As of right now Trump hasn't actually done anything (note the article says he's "working" to stop evictions, not that he stopped them), but the FDA went over his head and declared an emergency. That'll last a few more months tops though.

      Remember, rent's still due even if there's a moratorium. And as soon as the FDA can no longer declare an emergency it all comes due at once.

      • As of right now Trump hasn't actually done anything (note the article says he's "working" to stop evictions, not that he stopped them), ...

        That's because he can't.

        Mortgages and evictions are under state jurisdiction and state law. Fed intervention requires workarounds, such as:
        - Enforcing equal treatment under civil rights law. (As long as they're evicting delinquent mortgage debtors equally, without regard to race, religion, national origin, or previous condition of servitude, that doesn't work.)

        • Correction (Score:5, Insightful)

          by bussdriver ( 620565 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @11:25PM (#60530384)

          The Democrats did not hold renewal hostage. They passed something back in MAY that doesn't even get any time in the Senate which has held up everything until they did a no-go shame bill like a week ago. When one side already made a concrete offer and the other won't even consider it, how can the side who does NOTHING be the hostage?

          Also, it is the senate and Trump who have made extreme demands; the Democrats are willing to cave on their stuff like they USUALLY do; but they are mostly just asking for more money to prop up the system while the other side wants 100% immunity from employers who kill people if they are incompetent, neglectful or sociopaths. They had some poison pills in that crap last week as well. Furthermore, they want far far less money in the 1st place.... they can only give money to lobbyists not to Americans. Hell, they almost didn't get the last one that passed because some Senators didn't want any $$$ going to retired people.

          Oh, yes, don't forget about fucking over the USPS being an issue.

    • I believe a federal executive order on stopping evictions combined with emergency grants for landlords and mortgage holders went into effect recently.

      As a landlord (aka housing provider) I know of no such provisions or support.

      • See here [foxla.com]

        That said, it probably wouldn't hold up in court, and your tenants likely don't have the money to challenge you if you tried to evict them. Most Sheriffs would ignore the CDC.

    • Re:I thought this is currently illegal in the USA (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:16PM (#60529338)

      This is also a part of the grown industry for evictions! That is: evict illegally, then apologize later by saying "it was just gig workers, they didn't know what they were doing, we promise to train them better in the future." This sort of stuff happens a lot; in the middle of legal procedings to save a historic building, someone will accidentally demolish it; or when negotiating about a set of sacred caves in Australia the bulldozers accidentally come in. The person giving the order denies giving the order, the guys with the heavy equipment are the fall guys but they still get paid so they're winners too. The mob style of dealing with legal conflicts...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      You can sue to stay in the house. Or you can just stay and have the landlord take all you stuff and sue later. Good luck given that if it gets to a federal level all the judges are going to be of the opinion that it was your fault for getting sick or not having an inheritance. How stupid of you not to be born to rich parents.

      Laws like this have to be enforced, and have to have enough of a downside so that people actually have an incentive to obey them. It is like the robo foreclosures of the past. Al

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ranton ( 36917 )

      Seems like a really BAD time to launch such a business. Maybe they should hold off and wait for 2021.

      The new White House protections don't prevent all evictions, so a service like this probably also intends to help landlords find the loopholes. Maybe some of the work is for investigating if tenants are violating a no pet policy or are being noisy at 9pm. There are plenty of reasons to evict someone other than lack of payment.

      Either way, there will be some eviction work in 2020, and some people may want to build their reputation scores waiting for the floodgates to open. Unless Congress actually pay for ren

    • Many states have moratoriums in place on evictions due to COVID-19, and I believe a federal executive order on stopping evictions combined with emergency grants for landlords and mortgage holders went into effect recently.

      This can only last just so long....

      You're going to have the actual home OWNERS starting to lose their property due to not being able to pay the mortgage due to having renters living there not paying rent.

      At some point, the log jam will have to open up.

      Hence, we have to accept some risk

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jythie ( 914043 )
      You kidding, it is a great time for such a business. Eviction protection requires money people don't have, and the 'gig' element will likely mean that by the lawsuits start coming in regarding these private contractors, the people who came up with the company will likely disavow any liability and move on.

      Keep in mind that the US has a very DIY legal system, so people who can afford to hire private evictors are going to be able to afford more law than people bein evicted. Just because something is illegal

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by schwit1 ( 797399 )

      Devils advocate. How is this 'moratorium' not a violation of the 5th amendment's Takings Clause?

      Plus mortgages, property maintenance and HOA fees still have to be paid. For many landlords the rental income pays for this. The banks and HOAs aren't going to just eat it? What happens if during the moratorium the plumbing breaks or fridge goes out? Is the landlord still expected to fix this with no rental income to pay for it?

      This is not a simple issue.

      • Devils advocate. How is this 'moratorium' not a violation of the 5th amendment's Takings Clause?

        IMHO it is. Which means the landlords can bill the fed for the rent and sue them if they don't fork over.

        Or the landlords can just go ahead with the evictions (if the state goes along with them) and let the fed try to sue them.

        Note that the first relief act banned evictions from housing where the landlord had taken federal money AND appropriated money to pay for it. But that expired and the Ds won't agree with

  • You can bet your life on it.

  • My rent has doubled in the past 6 years (I live in CA). I can handle the increases for a couple years but, to be honest, if people get evicted and landlords can't find new renters to pay their rates, then, well, at least my rates won't go up.

    This of course fails big time for me if landlords find people who can pay the new rates.

    • Where are you anticipating they find those people? Except for Amazon I thought most of faang was on a hiring slowdown.

    • Landlords are weird sometimes. They'd rather hold rents up on a unit that is unoccupied for 6 months out of the year, than lower the rent slightly less and keep 100% occupancy. It's arguably a minority of owners that are quite so stupid, but most of them do this bad math to some lesser degree.

      I know small property owners that will accept partial payments from people who are otherwise in good standing, depending on the circumstances they communicate, rather than go through the process of evicting them then f

      • Re:I'm actually OK with this (Score:5, Informative)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot.worf@net> on Monday September 21, 2020 @06:03PM (#60529512)

        Landlords are weird sometimes. They'd rather hold rents up on a unit that is unoccupied for 6 months out of the year, than lower the rent slightly less and keep 100% occupancy. It's arguably a minority of owners that are quite so stupid, but most of them do this bad math to some lesser degree.

        It isn't if you strictly consider some landlords to be in business, whereas housing is more of a human need.

        If you consider renting out a house as a strictly business transaction, then raising rents even unoccupied makes a lot of sense - you consider even full occupancy at rates less than market to be leaving money on the table.

        If you consider housing to be more a human need and treat the renter as someone going through life, the outlook changes. In this case, you are not strictly in it for the money, and can adapt to business conditions as they change. Mass layoffs may mean you want to keep your renters because collecting money while you still can, even if you have to give them a break, is still better than tossing them out on the street and having to potentially make less money because the market rate plummets as no one can afford your property.

        Renting out is stressful - new renters come with new headaches (are they good people? Are they there to scam you? Will they pay? etc). Whereas a long term renter who just fallen on hard times recently (like many other people) is a known quantity and rules may be bent because it's better to keep them occupying the property than leave it empty and requiring upkeep (and constant checking for squatters etc).

        Property management companies are just in it for money so they tend to be fairly inflexible because of it, while the small time landlord generally is more understanding.

        If you want to see some real fun, though, take away any emotional attachment and go into the commercial sector. Most stores are leased or rented to businesses, and naturally with lockdowns and such business is down. Some commercial landords are demanding full rents from businesses who are closed, while others see that times are tough and cut their renters a break.

        When you consider how many retail businesses are closing, the situation seems more interesting. First, there's no housing emotion in it, it literally is strictly business. Second, a lot of landlords not giving breaks are hoping that the stores will close and they can jack up the rents on their waiting lists, but those people on the waiting list aren't necessarily going to be biting in these uncertain times. On the other hand, those landlords giving their stores a break are still seeing the stores stay and not close up shop.

        This is more interesting if you make it a mall situation, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. If you have retailers closing, it can lead to everyone else closing faster - people stop coming and the remaining stores suffer. Beyond a certain point it becomes really hard to fill vacancies because few retailers want to set up in a dead or dying mall. So the pursuit of money may mean a complete loss as retailers close up permanently, taking shoppers with them.

        • Here is the thing.

          Humans are greedy. Humans are illogical. Humans base decisions on emotion rather than logic and not all landlords are rational economic majors. Many justify well I PAID X AMOUNT so I NEED Y to make return on my investment and not think it through.

          Some are so angry that they got ripped off and paid thousands for lawyers and judges and cops to remove former tennents that they would rather leave it empty unoccupied if it means no deadbeats than put someone in with poor credit and have a repea

        • Re:I'm actually OK with this (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Ed Tice ( 3732157 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @08:49PM (#60529948)
          I rent out a small number of units and I don't buy this logic. It costs money to find new tenants. It costs money to have units empty. If a unit were to sit empty for more than a month or two, I would immediately have the property manager lower the asking rent. The annual rent increases on my occupied units are always very small even if the market rate would be higher because the cost of tenant turnover isn't worth it. In many cases, I would go to a zero rent increase if a tenant came to negotiate it. This is more likely a function of somebody at a larger organization getting a bonus based on average rents and looking out for themselves rather than the company.
    • you'll struggle to keep it because it's difficult if not impossible to be a functioning adult without a place to live; meaning a landlord is just as likely to raise your rent to make up for lost revenue.

      We've let these bastards buy out all the land. Where I am one company owns everything in a 30-40 mile radius. When they finished buying the last block of apartments near me my rent immediately went up 20%.

      We need rent control. We also need to stop letting foreign investors buy houses and we need to b

      • Everywhere rent control has been implemented caused rents to skyrocket even harder! This is because New York and San Fransisco have more of a shortage as no in hell will give those controlled units up so less supply equals increased demand.

        What will happen in your neighborhood is many out of work folks will be homeless. The units will go unrented out. The rents at first will stay high with move in specials. When these do not attract lower application fees. When that fails they will start lowering the rents.

    • Sometimes it's an old apartment complex, they can afford to reduce rents if forced. But some people are in a bind, the current rent of their house barely covers the mortgage; both the owner and the renter are out of a job and the mortgage can't be paid, the owner has their own rent or mortgage to pay and can't move back to the original house anymore because of the renter. And lots of stuff in-between. It's a mess and complicated but people and laws tend to treat all rentals the same.

  • if they show up on your door (Score:5, Interesting)

    by superwiz ( 655733 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:00PM (#60529254) Journal
    Call the police and report a home invasion immediately. Do this even before you ask them for an ID. Given that this has no become a national news, there will a lot of copycats trying to impersonate such services. They'll claim legal access to your home even though they don't have a court order in hand. Let the cops figure out if these people are legit. And if an eviction is a surprise to you (ie, if you haven't interacted with a court regarding this issue), if these are not cops, don't open the door. Do barricade the door and don't open it until the police arrive. If you haven't been notified of an eviction proceeding against you, there is a very high chance that these are burglars.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: if they show up on your door (Score:4, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:53PM (#60529472)

        That doesn't jive with the fact that 10 of the 13 cities that have defunded lie in states that have eviction moratoriums. And contrary to the how it sounds, most of the cities that "defunded" only made modest budget cuts.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by ghoul ( 157158 )
        Since the cops have been defunded, the thugs at your doorstep are probably trigger happy ex cops. Make sure to exercise your second amendment and fourth amendment rights as well as your right to shoot first when "you are reasonable fear of your life and property"

      • Re: if they show up on your door (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Cyberax ( 705495 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @08:20PM (#60529888)

        Problem with that ven diagram is the places with the most evictions and places where police departments have been defunded have significant overlap.

        That's bullshit. No police departments have been "defunded" as a result of protests, because they operate on a budget that is planned a year in advance. The earliest the cuts can take effect is the next fiscal year.

        Moreover, the most active protests happened in Portland, Seattle and Oakland and all these cities have moratoriums on evictions. I think actually all three states have moratoriums, but I'm too lazy to check.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Bobrick ( 5220289 )
      Right, because opening the door to fucking cops is safer?
    • What are you talking about? A process server isn't going into your house, they aren't allowed to. They are going to be saying "Are you Mr. Superwiz?" when you say yes, they'll hand you a packet of paper and say "You've been served, bye."
      • And in many places, if you dont answer/aren't home/whatever, they can just tape the papers to the front door and their job counts as done. There is usually no need for personal interaction.
        • You are talking about process servers. This is obviously not about them. This is about people claiming to be eviction crews executing eviction judgements.
          • It's literally in the article that they are process servers "Civvl aims to make it easy for landlords to hire process servers and eviction agents as gig workers."
      • What are you talking about? The summary clearly said that they are hired to execute eviction judgements -- not notices. An "eviction crew" are the people who move a tenant's stuff out of the house. If someone shows up without a cop claiming to be "an eviction crew", all huffing and puffing, they could be a bugler trying to force their way into the house while you stand there nonplussed confused as to what the hell is going on. Call the police immediately.
    • These people virtually always show up with police accompanying them anyway.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by taustin ( 171655 )

      If you haven't been notified of an eviction proceeding against you, there is a very high chance that these are burglars.

      Er, no. If you're home when they try to steal from you, it's a home invasion robbery. A far more serious felony.

      In California, if there's no court order and a LEO to serve it, it's not legit. And California has one of the strongest home defense laws in the US. If they try to force they way in, just kill them.

  • Best of humanity (Score:3)

    by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:08PM (#60529296)

    These folks are the best of humanity. Always another reason to stick it to your fellow man.

    If you were a landlord and had the unfortunate situation where you need to evict someone, would you trust a service like this? I sure would not not trust this, I'd expect that they get the landlord in hot water for hiring untrained assholes that did something incorrectly/against the law.

  • Grapes of Wrath (Score:3)

    by Jfetjunky ( 4359471 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:08PM (#60529298)
    This reminds me of the grapes of wrath bulldozer scene where local people would show up at neighbors' houses with their bulldozer, having been hired by the bank, to knock it down for foreclosure.

  • Looking for gig workers (Score:3)

    by sinij ( 911942 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:10PM (#60529308)
    Looking for more gig workers, one-time well-paying gig at the soylent green factory.

  • When Injustice is Law, Revolution is Nessary (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SysEngineer ( 4726931 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:24PM (#60529366)
    Thomas Jefferson once stated. "When injustice is Law, Resistance in Duty". There is so much injustice now, Revolution is Nessary

    • Re:When Injustice is Law, Revolution is Nessary (Score:4, Insightful)

      by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @05:49PM (#60529454)

      "When injustice is Law, Resistance in Duty". There is so much injustice now, Revolution is Nessary

      So the landlords can claim injustice also, what if they "resist" by harming tenants?

      Calling for violence is always a bad call, because it justifies violence on both sides.

      Also can't help but notice how you twisted "Resistance" from the original quote" into "Revolution".

  • and you can work as bounty hunter at the same time. and the laws that limit what cops can do don't apply!

  • How far we have fallen! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Miles_O'Toole ( 5152533 ) on Monday September 21, 2020 @06:04PM (#60529514)

    It used to be that when predatory bankers forced a farmer into bankruptcy, then moved in to foreclose on his farm, his neighbours would come together as his property was auctioned off and offer bids of only pennies. Anyone willing to bid higher was "invited to leave", sometimes at the business end of a shotgun. Whoever won the auction would then sell the farmer's property back to him for the few dollars it cost to buy.

    Look at us now. Gig economy workers, who aren't exactly millionaires, are being recruited for the ugly, soul-sucking job of helping to throw their desperate neighbours out on the street.

    Somebody needs to be horsewhipped in the town square for this. Seriously, how much is it going to take for people to realize that the reason most of America can't afford to miss a single paycheque isn't poor people or immigrants or "welfare queens" stealing your chance to make it big. It's billionaires, mostly in the financial sector, who are sucking America dry. When there's not one drop of blood left in the desiccated corpse of Uncle Sam, Wall Street bankers will move on to their next victim without even a backward glance at the devastated wreckage they are leaving behind.

  • When this person's mother passed, they inherited the house she'd lived in and she'd rented out her top floor to another older couple...who never paid their rent on time and turned out to have a criminal record. So when my coworker told them way in advance (like a year) that after their mother's death, they'd be selling the house and not renewing their lease, the tenants wouldn't budge. And lawyers had to get involved. And it dragged on for an additional year.

    Evil landlords are people too. Not all tenants a
  • I know it’s fun to paint the evictors as the enemy, ruthlessly kicking people out because they have no heart and enjoy watching misery, but remember they are probably paying a rent or mortgage somewhere too and will face the same thing if they don’t evict people. Reminds me of the movie Repo Men, where artificial organs can be repossessed if you miss a payment, but when one of the repo men need a artificial organ, he’s now forced to repossess more organs to keep up with payments or suffer
  • Just sayin'.
    Isn't this sort of thing normally done by local law enforcement? I see nothing good coming from randos being hired on a piecemeal basis to oust people from where they live. I see laws being broken and civil rights violated in the process, if not outright violence.

  • ...I will probably actually be in prison for murder soon.

    I'm not even in danger of being evicted, I've just had enough of tolerating demons in my fucking country. I will kill them.

    • I'm serious. I'm fucking serious.

      Anyone in my town gets involved in this, I'm coming after them with a tire iron and a knife and if they don't kill me first I will make them BEG to die.

      Ban me, I don't give a fuck. I can't take one more second of watching America do this. They'll die or I'll die trying to kill them.

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