Like much of America, Tampa has been hard by the foreclosure crises, and it doesn't appear to be ending anytime soon.
In 2010 the city had 2,536 vacant properties registered. In 2011 it went up to 3,325. And currently there are now at least 4,316 foreclosed properties in the city.
In some communities, housing activists and members of the Occupy movement have spurred a movement to squat in such foreclosed homes.
In discussions with neighborhood leaders in the V.M. Ybor district, Tampa neighborhood services director Jake Slater said the issue of squatters taking over vacated properties is particularly vexing in that area, with arson and crime an offshoot of the problem.
That was one reason why the city chose that area north of Ybor City to be the area for a pilot project on how to stem the squatting in those homes (The area is divided between I-275 on the west, 26th Avenue to the north, 15th Street to the east, and I-4 to the south).
This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2012.