What ‘The Simpsons’ taught us about squatters—and how PLF is fixing the problem
In its nearly 36 years on air, The Simpsons has shown an uncanny knack for foreshadowing events and issues that would become social and political talking points in the future. Its predictions have ranged from a Trump presidency to virtual-reality tech, and even the absurdity of squatters’ rights.
In the 1998 episode, “Bart Carny,” Homer and Bart befriend a pair of down-on-their-luck carnies, who trick the Simpsons out of their home and then change the locks. Try as they might, the family can’t get the squatters out of their house. And with their Evergreen Terrace home now occupied by squatters, the family is forced to take up residence in Bart’s backyard treehouse.
Absurd premise? Maybe. But by today’s standards … maybe not.
While reality doesn’t typically dictate the show’s plot lines, this episode captures the difficulty homeowners face when trying to remove squatters—albeit in an outlandish way. Had the Simpsons been a real family in the real world, their first approach might have been to call the police. But they would have soon discovered there was very little that Springfield Police Chief Wiggum could actually do. Unfortunately, in real life, homeowners often discover that the law protects trespassers in ways that seem stranger than fiction.
While it appeared as satire in 1998, states today are grappling with nearly identical challenges. And as the problems with squatting have grown across the country, property owners have learned there is no easy way to remove squatters from their home.
The squatting problem
Squatting—the act of occupying someone else’s property without any legal claim or owner consent—has become a major concern over the past several years, wreaking havoc on homeowners.
Imagine coming home from a three-week vacation to find that your locks have been changed and strangers are living in your home and refusing to leave. Unlike regular break-ins where intruders are treated as criminals and hauled off to jail, law enforcement views squatting as a civil dispute between landlord and tenant. When police arrive, all a squatter needs to do is say “I have a lease,” and the officers’ hands are tied—they don’t even need to show any proof.
The homeowners are then forced to file an eviction case to settle the dispute, which can take months or even years to resolve. In the meantime, property owners lose access to their homes and, in some cases, are forced to sit back while squatters destroy their property and even sell off their belongings.
In Pacific Legal Foundation’s research, Locking Squatters Out: How States Can Protect Property Owners, Kyle Sweetland and Mark Miller shine a light on the problem’s real-world impacts:
“In one egregious example, a Dallas woman sustained more than $150,000 in property damage from squatters. And a New York City homeowner saw his utility billing increase by more than $1,000 per month when squatters took over his home.”
While the number of squatting instances is on the rise, painting a precise picture of the problem is tricky because little data exists. As the PLF research points out, “A survey conducted by the National Rental Home Council (NRHC) in 2023 provides the only data collected to date. The NRHC surveyed its members and found that the largest numbers of homes had been subject to squatting at some point in Atlanta (1,200), Dallas (475), and Orlando (125). Note, however, that these numbers are not disaggregated by year.”
Looking at the state of Georgia alone, the squatters case count jumped from three in 2017 to 50 in 2021—to 198 in 2023. However, these numbers don’t tell the full story, because there are courts across the state where the case data is unavailable. For example, Georgia’s numbers are reported from only 25 of the state’s 159 counties. There are also other squatters’ cases unaccounted for—like those that are resolved without litigation.
One thing we do know for sure: The squatter problem is in dire need of a solution.
Locking out the squatters
For the Simpson family, getting their home back was a matter of luring the squatters out into the backyard, and then distracting them while the family ran into the house and locked all the doors. Some real-life property owners have resorted to similar tactics.
Flash Stevens, who is known as the “squatter hunter,” wanted to turn the tables on the squatters who had taken over his mom’s house. Because the laws favor squatters, he became a squatter himself. Waiting until the trespassers left the house, he got into the home and locked them out. After his success getting squatters out of his mother’s home, he now helps other homeowners who found that their local laws are working against them.
It is absolutely nuts that individual property owners have had to find these creative solutions to a problem that shouldn’t exist in the first place. Individual property rights are protected under the Constitution and governments are tasked with ensuring those rights are secured. Yet, when state laws treat squatter cases as civil disputes, rather than criminal offenses, legal scholars have argued that this amounts to a government-approved taking of private property without just compensation, a violation of property owners’ Fifth Amendment rights.
One way to fix the problem is for states to enact policies that protect property owners from squatters. And several states are doing just that, passing legislation that turns squatting into a criminal offense.
PLF’s research reported that as of May 2024, eight states, Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Tennessee, Washington, and West Virginia, had passed laws that criminalize squatting, while 11 other states had introduced bills to do the same. Since then, other states have followed suit.
As Sweetland writes in PLF’s updated research report, Continuing to Lock Squatter’s Out: How States Have Protected Property Rights from Squatters:
“This landscape changed significantly in just more than a year. As of July 2025, an additional 15 states (Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming) had criminalized squatting, bringing the total to 23 states. Additionally, a couple of states introduced bills to criminalize squatting.”
This update is excellent news for property owners. But there is still more work to be done.
Right now, only about half of the states have reformed their squatters’ laws. Pacific Legal Foundation is helping the remaining states craft legislation to protect homeowners with our model policy, “The Stop Squatters Act.” Already, five states—Arkansas, Kentucky, Montana, West Virginia, and Wyoming—have used PLF’s model policy to draft their own legislation.
The Simpsons might have solved their squatter problem with a clever trick, but in the real world, the right to keep your home safe from trespassers is too fundamental to leave to loopholes. Squatters should be out, and property rights should be in.
