“Squatters’ rights” defender Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) has come under fire for apparent hypocrisy after documents obtained by Fox News revealed that she filed multiple eviction notices against her own tenants as recently as this year.
Kaptur, who pushed for eviction moratoriums during the coronavirus pandemic, has had a long history of denigrating property owners and landlords.
“Possession is 99 percent of the law; you stay in your house.” Kaptur said on the House floor following the 2008 housing crisis, according to Fox News. “So, I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes. Don’t you leave.”
However, Kaptur, 78, is a landlord herself.
Documents recently obtained by the outlet revealed that the congresswoman filed eviction notices in 2021, 2023, and 2024 for “nonpayment of rent, a noise complaint, an animal complaint, and an unauthorized person living in the property.”
The campaign team for Kaptur, who is running for her twenty-second congressional term, claims that a property manager filed those notices, not the congresswoman.
Kaptur’s team told Fox:
Rep. Kaptur purchased a vacant property in her neighborhood more than 30 years ago. She fixed it up and hired a property manager to oversee and lease it. Matters like those referenced in this story are handled by the property manager, and while the name of a property owner is required to appear on the filings you reference, they were not initiated or directed by Rep. Kaptur. Rep. Kaptur has never personally filed to evict anyone.
Those eviction filings were eventually withdrawn by Kaptur, the outlet reported.
