The Georgia Senate Public Safety Committee Monday passed the “anti-squatters act” that establishes a process for requiring law enforcement officers to remove people accused of illegally staying at a residential property.
Under House Bill 61, people who stay in residential properties, hotels or cars without the owner’s express permission are guilty of misdemeanor unlawful squatting. Any person violating the law would be subject to having law enforcement officers remove them from the property within 10 days of notification.
The bill’s advancement by a 7-2 committee vote comes on the heels of a coalition of housing rights advocates heading into a disappointing homestretch of the 2025 legislative session after seeing little progress on bipartisan bills aimed at protecting Georgians from higher rents, problematic landlords and increasing threats of eviction.
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