| Ewww! |
Mayor Bruce Knell detailed the destructive behavior of roughly 200 homeless people in Casper, WY. who have been creating a "mess" throughout the streets and parks, as well as a closed motel where squatters left millions in property damage.
"They destroyed everything," he told Cowboy State Daily. "It’s horrible."
Homeless people who squatted at the Econo Lodge motel caused more damage than the flooding that initially closed the business down, Knell reportedly said. The property was condemned by the city and the bank that owns the foreclosed business boarded it up.
"It was inhabitable, and it was unsafe," Knell told Cowboy State Daily.
Other homeless people are squatting in other abandoned properties in Casper that don’t have water or electricity.
| Courtesy of Skidmark, Fox News adds: |
"We know very well we cannot litigate our way or arrest our way out of the problem, but our police need some teeth to start dealing with the squatting," Knell told the outlet. "They’re just causing so many problems.
The mayor told the outlet that the homeless squatters have likely contributed to some of the crime in the city.
Check out all the bike parts in a homeless camp. Stolen and stripped. Not to mention the shopping carts
"In desperate times people do desperate things, and unfortunately we’re the ones left having to deal with it," he said.
Knell noted that the local homeless shelter is not the issue and instead laid blame on the homeless who have been kicked out of the shelter and those who can’t get in and then never leave Casper.
"There’s a certain part of the homeless population, whether substance abuse or mental illness, that is getting them to where they don’t want to conform to society’s rules," Knell told the outlet. "When they do that, they’re not allowed to go in the shelter, which means they’re just out and about in our community raising hell.
The mayor noted that the homeless population, along with homeless people along the West Coast, want a home they can call their own.