Atlanta man tries to remove squatters from his land in effort to build affordable housing

An Atlanta man is fighting to remove as many as eight squatters from his land so he can develop it into affordable housing. David Morris, who began letting people live on the property a decade ago under the agreement that they'd care for it, noticed during the pandemic that more were moving in uninvited. He has been on a quest to kick them off ever since.

While the laws that protect those who occupy other people's property are strong, Morris was recently able to obtain a Writ of Possession and will soon begin taking measures to secure his land.

According to FOX5, Morris was granted the legal document on March 21, thus giving him the right to install fencing around his nine acres in the southeast area of town.

Restoring the property to a usable state is expected to take time and money, with the local code enforcement authority demanding that Morris remove the mess left by those staying there. He told FOX5, however, that he has already spent $10,000 "cleaning up garbage from vagrants," adding, "It's frustrating that I'm having to spend so much money."

Morris explained that during the pandemic, the four original tenants began inviting their friends to live on the property without his knowledge. 

"I tried to file eviction," he said, "and the city of Atlanta said, ‘Sorry, we have a moratorium on evictions right now'."

Now that the Covid-era moratorium is over, though, the eviction process is moving along. Morris noted that one squatter filed a counter-claim against him, however that never materialized because the vagrant never showed up in court.

Morris, who now lives in California, stated that it could be as soon as 30 days before law enforcement finally lets him know when he and the team he will have to hire can start clearing stuff off the land.

As FOX5 reports, squatters are not the only people to have pitched up on Morris' property. Last year, he told the outlet, "the entire medical staff of 'Stop Cop City' camped on this land," noting that, "there was about 30 campers and the police came in and pulled them out of their tents."