Northeast Philadelphia residents sound off on squatters, help for veterans and President Trump in this week’s letters to the editor.
Growing squatter problem
Our great city has a growing problem with squatters — people who enter into someone else’s unoccupied home without the owner’s permission and then refuse to leave the premises. The Northeast has quite a few squatter situations currently, but no section of the city is immune to the problem. The police are usually the first point of contact in these situations, but they are limited in what they can do as a result of archaic “Squatters’ Rights” in Pennsylvania, which oddly affords squatters as many or more rights than the lawful homeowner.
Often times, squatters are able to produce fake deeds to the home they’ve invaded and police officers don’t have the time or ability to verify the validity of the deed. That’s why I believe that the onus on protecting rightful homeowners from squatters should fall on the city Department of Licenses and Inspections.
To confront this mounting problem head-on, I will be calling for a series of City Council hearings on the issue of squatters and am proud that Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds-Brown is in support of this plan of action and has co-sponsored the resolution. This isn’t a partisan issue, it’s a human issue. A person’s home is his or her sanctuary. We need to do more to protect Philadelphia’s homeowners — and we will.
Councilman Al Taubenberger
Philadelphia City Council
Help for vets is available
Assisting our veterans in learning about their benefits and how to access them is one of the most important things we can do to support these men and women who have served our nation.
To support our veterans, a national service officer will visit my district office, at 19 S. York Road in Hatboro, on the first Wednesday of each month from 9 a.m. to noon.
The national service officer will be able to help a veteran discern what benefits for which they are eligible and how to apply for them. An appointment is not necessary.
If any veteran has a question about the program, please call my office at 215–674–3755.
Rep. Thomas P. Murt
152nd Legislative District
Oprah / Michelle in 2020
Oprah. Michelle. America needs you to run in 2020. I know this wasn’t part of the plan, but we need you. The environment needs you. Future generations need you. Equality needs you. Hope needs you.
Actions speak louder than words and nothing encapsulates “women empowerment” more than taking on Bully-President Trump (who prefers to divide instead of unite) with your infinite class and elegance.
When they go low, we go high.
A president can do a lot of good in eight years, but they can also do a lot of damage that is potentially irreversible. America seems less great by the day under the current administration.
Who else is going to dethrone Trump? Bernie Sanders? Wife’s alleged fraud. FBI investigation. Joe Biden? Family drama. Inopportune f-bombs. Cory Booker? Is the junior senator ready to run? Is America ready to vote for a middle-aged man with no children, who never married or publicly been linked to a long-term committed relationship? Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson? Don’t think so. Kanye? Even less likely.
We know this endeavor will be life altering but Americans will forever be grateful for your personal sacrifices.
Never underestimate hate. It already won one election. Please, don’t let it win again.
#OprahMichelle2020 #Don’tLetHateWin
Jason Kaye
Lawndale
Trump voters got it right
I see that more people have joined that chorus of ideological songbirds just a’chirpin’ away against President Trump. Their objection to Trump is, of course, motivated by pure ideology.
What those who sing that tune consistently do not understand is that the American people saw the abject failure of their side’s policies and voted for a long-overdue correction in November.
The reason was simplicity itself: the other side’s policies resulted in a much larger national debt, caused the U.S. to lose international prestige, created an essentially stagnant economy, and all the while actually arguing — in complete contradiction to biology and common sense — that there were many more genders than two.
So I have a question: if a Democratic president had the same or a similar list of the negatives you ascribe to Trump, would you be as willing to chirp and cheep about those negatives to newspapers?
George Tomezsko
Fox Chase
