Casper mayor Bruce Knell weighs in on homeless invasion crisis, likens situation to 'third world country'
CASPER, WYOMING: Squatters have taken over a Wyoming city after some left millions of dollars worth of damage to a motel and others left 500lbs of feces in the downtown area. Casper, the second-largest city in the state, is home to 60,000 residents but now also has about 200 homeless people.
Casper Mayor Bruce Knell described the extent of the destruction as akin to 'third-world-country stuff'. "It's like nothing I've ever seen. It's third-world-country stuff happening in Casper, Wyoming," he told Cowboy State Daily. "They destroyed everything. It's horrible."
Econo Lodge taken over by squatters
The motel, which has about 300 rooms and was already closed due to flooding, was taken over by squatters, who have now rendered it both uninhabitable and hazardous.
The flooding happened last winter after water lines froze and burst, flooding one floor and submerging the electrical switch panel.
That alone caused millions in damage but the squatters have made matters worse. After the property was foreclosed by the bank, the building was secured and boarded up.
But the homeless group broke inside and have now left hundreds of pounds of human feces, which the city has to deal with as part of a cleanup.
"They have destroyed this business," Knell told Oil City News. "It broke my heart to see," noting how he saw drug paraphernalia and the wanton destruction of furnishings. "You cannot wrap your head around what happened to that hotel."
Municipal authorities acknowledge that they have exhausted their strategies for effectively addressing the increasing homeless population, and they admit imposing fines and making arrests have proven ineffective in addressing the issue.
"We know very well we cannot litigate our way or arrest our way out of the problem, but our police need some teeth to start dealing with the squatting," Mayor Knell said. "They're just causing so many problems. In desperate times people do desperate things, and unfortunately, we're the ones left having to deal with it," he continued.
City councils grapple with homelessness crisis
The city council is currently contemplating the adoption of a new code that would necessitate squatters to obtain written permission from property owners and impose restrictions on the duration of their stay on private property.
The mayor noted that while addressing homelessness is a multifaceted challenge, a significant portion of individuals in this predicament struggle with substance abuse or mental health issues, leading them to resist adhering to societal norms and regulations.
Consequently, they are unable to access shelters, resulting in their continued presence within the community and engagement in further disruptive behavior, he added.
Mayor Knell explained, "There's a certain part of the homeless population, whether substance abuse or mental illness, that is getting them to where they don't want to conform to society's rules. When they do that, they're not allowed to go in the shelter, which means they're just out and about in our community raising hell."
