Homeless living behind our trash cans

I just bought this condo and I am a young (25) single girl my parking space is right next to the trash cans where about 4/5 people
Seem to be living. I asked the HOA president what and when he was going to do about this situation and his reply was I am not going to confront
them it is not worth it for me to possible get into a fight and then told me to call the police. Then he laughed and said the police won’t do anything to help with this situation! I fear for my safety when I come home alone late at night!! What are my options if the police won’t help and the HOA president doesn’t care if they are there or not?

Hi Sharron. I feel for you. I’ve been attempting to keep trespassers out of our community swimming pool all summer long and it’s not been easy.

I don’t have a lot to offer, but if I were you I wouldn’t take you ahole HOA president’s word - I’d call the police and see what they have to say. Specifically, find out what kind of policy they have on homeless trespassers.

I don’t know what the laws are like there, but you might want to carry some mace?

Is there video surveillance of the area?

Is there any chance you could swap parking spots with someone else?

Is there any chance the trash can area could be moved somewhere not so conducive to squatters?

I’m including some material I put together just the other day: my wife maintains that homeless people are no more likely to be violent than anyone else. I disagree. I did a lot of reading. The third article is from The American Conservative, and while you're right to be suspicious of the source - the author isn't lying, and in fact he echoes my own feelings as I was reading other research. My point in providing this is not to frighten you; it is to prepare you for inevitable remarks from people who will brush you off and say “homeless people are just people, and you shouldn’t be afraid of them” or some such bilge.

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https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7641002/
1995

Abstract
Objectives: The study aimed to estimate the prevalence of homelessness among mentally disordered offenders entering the criminal justice and forensic mental health systems, to compare base rates of arrest for violent and nonviolent criminal charges among homeless and domiciled persons with mental illness, and to examine patterns in the categories of victims chosen by these two groups.

Methods: The authors analyzed data from structured psychiatric interviews and criminal and psychiatric records of 77 homeless defendants and 107 domiciled defendants referred for psychiatric examination by the criminal and supreme courts in Manhattan over a six-month period.

Results: Mentally disordered defendants had 40 times the rate of homelessness found in the general population, and 21 times the rate in the population of mentally ill persons in the city. The overall rate of criminal offenses was 35 times higher in the homeless mentally ill population than in the domiciled mentally ill population. The rate of violent crimes was 40 times higher and the rate of nonviolent crimes 27 times higher in the homeless population. Homeless defendants were significantly more likely to have been charged with victimizing strangers.

Conclusions: Homeless mentally ill persons appear to be grossly overrepresented among mentally disordered defendants entering the criminal justice and forensic mental health systems and to have a higher base rate of arrest for both violent and nonviolent crimes than domiciled mentally ill persons.
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https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ps.201200515#:~:text=In%20a%20study%20by%20Calsyn,previous%20two%20weeks%20(26).
2014

Prevalence and correlates of self-reported criminal behavior
Table 2 presents characteristics and findings from the four studies that measured self-reported criminal behavior. Available time frames were considerably shorter than for contacts with the criminal justice system and ranged between two weeks and 12 months. In one study, 17.0% of participants reported committing a violent crime during a six-month period, whereas 32.0% reported committing a nonviolent crime during the same time frame (25). Over a 12-month period, participants enrolled in a supported housing trial reported a mean number of 1.8 crimes (33). In a study by Calsyn and colleagues (16), 12-month prevalence rates of 40.0% for substance-related offenses, 22.0% for minor offenses, and 9.0% for major offenses were reported. Finally, in one study, 7.8% of participants reported committing a violent crime in the previous two weeks (26). Of the two studies that reported correlates of self-reported criminal behavior, significant correlates included young age, severity of psychiatric symptoms, type of homelessness (street versus shelter), protracted homelessness, and previous contact with the criminal justice system (16,25).

Criminal behavior and justice system contacts
Lifetime prevalence data considered in this review indicate that 62.9%−90.0% of homeless individuals with severe mental illness have been arrested at least once, 28.1%−80.0% have been convicted of a crime, and 48.0%−67.0% have been incarcerated. Of note, for conviction rates, the lowest figure (28.1%) represents felony convictions only (which include more severe categories of crime than misdemeanors) (29); if this figure is excluded, lifetime rates for any conviction fall into a much tighter range, between 52.0% and 80.0%. These rates, as well as shorter-term prevalence rates, are much higher than for the general U.S. population, in which lifetime arrest rates are estimated to be about 15.0% (35). Ten-year arrest rates of community-dwelling adults with mental illness ranged between 25.0% and 33.0% (36–38).

Comparing rates of criminal justice contacts from the studies reviewed with rates from studies of homeless individuals without a severe mental illness is more challenging because there is considerable overlap in their characteristics at contact with services and because most studies on homeless populations do not typically exclude individuals with mental illnesses. Two of the studies selected for this review did, however, report comparative data for homeless participants with and without severe mental illnesses (20,30). Results suggested that both groups had similar rates of involvement with the criminal justice system (arrests, convictions, and incarcerations). This indicates that in terms of criminal justice involvement, homeless individuals with severe mental illness tend to be more similar to the general homeless population than to the general population of individuals with severe mental illness. However, any conclusions must be viewed as tentative given the few studies available and the challenge of drawing comparisons across studies that used different definitions of mental illness and different measures of criminal justice involvement and that had various other methodological differences (such as use of self-report data versus data from administrative records).
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https://www.theamericanconservative.com/yes-the-homeless-are-more-violent/
2023

New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie says conservative media presents the homeless as being "inherently unstable, violent and dangerous." In fact, he writes,

homeless people have committed acts of violence. But the facts are clear: The homeless, including people with mental illnesses, are far more likely to be victims of violence and abuse than perpetrators.

No one is saying, or at least I'm not, that homeless people are "inherently" violent. The argument is that homeless people, and especially homeless people with mental illness, are proportionately more violent than people who aren't. That homeless people and people with mental illness are "more likely to be victims of violence and abuse than perpetrators" is tragic, but a non sequitur.

It is not easy, as you probably guessed, to find the data on violent crime rates among the homeless. When you look for it, you are presented with report after report reminding you that the homeless are more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators, which, again, does not answer the question.

There are some older studies and newer municipal data that suggest that the homeless, while often victims of circumstance, mental illness, or otherwise, are much more likely to commit violent crimes than those who aren't homeless. In Los Angeles, for example, there were 28,882 violent crimes reported in 2020. The homeless make up about 1 percent of the city's population, but according to the LAPD, were responsible for 9,176 violent crimes—about 31 percent of the total violent crimes reported. And in other cities, we've seen that mental illness exacerbates the disparity in violent crime between the homeless and the domiciled. A 1995 study of people in Manhattan's criminal and forensic psychiatric systems found that mentally ill defendants "had 40 times the rate of homelessness found in the general population, and 21 times the rate in the population of mentally ill persons in the city," while the homeless group's violent crime rate was forty times higher than among the non-homeless mentally ill population.
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Good luck with this.

Bill

Funny I bet your board wants to do the same thing but you act like you invisible... 😂

Good plan. No one would complain about flood lights... The law is the law it is NOT the HOA law. They are NOT members of the HOA now are they? The HOA rules do not apply. What does apply? Your local and state laws. Which is there a law if you are doing nothing but sitting on a sidewalk are you breaking any laws?

This is a police and city issue. The HOA can work with them but they have no jurisdiction over them.

Sharron,
Sorry I hit send too quickly. This is the boards job not yours personally. All you can do is give them some suggestions that they may not have thought of but more importantly let them know that you are in fear of your personal safety which is their responsibility to make a safe environment for the owners of this complex.

Not to mention the health risks of having an open air toilet nearby.

From experience with HOAs and condos, I believe all your options here are bad and labor-intense. The best option of all the bad options is to run for the board with people who feel as you do. Then address this trespass on the common area.

In ignoring significant trespass onto common area, the HOA president and the HOA board are being incredibly foolish.

And this applies to what? The HOA own the homeless people? The quote is regarding physical damage caused by a physical instrument. Not people.

Melissa,
The homeless people living on HOA property are not dues paying members. When you mention HOA does not provide personal safety my question to you would be do they allow dangerous areas where people can fall and hurt their selves? Do they leave pool gates open so kids can drown? Owners do deserve some reasonable safety when they get out of their cars in a parking lot owned by the HOA. I do not have all the answers because we do not know the whole situation, but the liability remains with the HOA IMO.

Kerry,
I am with you on your next steps. I would start first with an email to the board and PMC. Hopefully they have 1 email that hits all board members. This is the written proof of her concerns. This also starts the timeline. waiting till the board meeting delays things and if poor notes are taken the issue can be glossed over. If the note is sent and received it can be quoted at the meeting as a reminder that this has not been corrected and she is not going away. I would also say see you at the next meeting at the end of my comment period so they know "Fix it or Face It".

Winter is coming. It's cold living in tents. The homeless often light fires to cook outside. Those fires frequently spread to surrounding areas, especially when there is a lot of vegetation nearby. We see almost daily reports of these fires. Another reason for the board to get involved. Would the insurance cover fire loss if the HOA did not abate a nuisance?

I hold no delusion my neighbors are responsible for my safety or wellness. Nor do I expect them to pay for it. Which having your board is doing. I call the police for police things.

I will point out that the OP, Sharon, specified she bought a condo.

Hence, she lives within a condominium Association.

From my understanding, a Condominium Association doesn't own any common property. Instead, every owner owns a percentage of it.\

Most of the advice given would still apply.

Mark's suggestion actually deals with your issue, Sharron an he's right to flip my suggestions when he wrote: "

I would start first with an email to the board and PMC. Hopefully they have 1 email that hits all board members. This is the written proof of her concerns. This also starts the timeline. Waiting till the board meeting delays things and if poor notes are taken the issue can be glossed over. If the note is sent and received it can be quoted at the meeting as a reminder that this has not been corrected and she is not going away. I would also say see you at the next meeting at the end of my comment period so they know "Fix it or Face It"..

Wow those homeless sound real dangerous crossing across land... Property crime happens every day in your HOA and not by the homeless... Renters do not own homes. Those criminals...

Wow these homeless people you have imagined in your heads are so dangerous and harmful to the environment. Reality check. Homeless are most likely to be subject to having crimes committed to them than them commiting them. That is because who cares about the homeless?

People the economy today is putting more people on the streets. Some having jobs. Others having mental or physical ailments preventing working. Our mental health system is broken. Instead of reaching a hand out to slap someone while down that same hand can reach someone up

People take drugs to help forget the circumstances they are living. It cures the pain for them. Causing more by your assumption and falsehoods about them.

We have movies in the park in the summer here. The park has homeless in it. The most amazing thing happens. The richest of our town and the poorest who sleep on our benches watch the movies together. I have seen people talking with each other with one having a suitcase beside them. It is a nice moment where we are all human enjoying a movie together. No one judges.

If you look at the stuff I posted above - I’m not happy about it, but there is legitimate research that homeless people *are* more prone to committing violent crimes. The 2014 meta-analysis is especially interesting. Just coming right out and saying “homeless people are more prone to violence” is an unpopular sentiment to express, and so it is often buried. But it seems to be a real thing.

Bill

Yeah. The homeless are most likely to be victims of crimes. Crimes committed by the homeless around them!!!
My neighbor said he would open his property to the homeless just to annoy the board.

Not sure if you’re serious or not, but we’ve found hypodermic needles up in the playground next to the pool.

Bill

"Don't confuse me with the facts."

No the HOA is NOT responsible for your personal safety period. Not written anywhere or at any time. They can approve your anti crime measures like cameras etc... They are not responsible for crime fighting.

You can form a neighborhood watch separately from your HOA. They work with the police. They should never be part of the HOA funding wise or attached in anyway. That opens up lawsuits when one owner takes the law into their own hands... Trevyn Martin...