On a hot Thursday in July, the house at 5536 Kingswood Drive in Orlando was empty. Deputy Jacob Snavely of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and a contractor from property owner Sylvan Homes put back into place the front doors, which the deputy had helped remove the night before to make sure no one would be there in the morning.
For months, residents of Kingswood Manor say squatters turned this house into an ongoing party, a high volume of cars coming and going at all hours, trash strewn about the property and loud gatherings on the front lawn that shattered the peace in one of Orlando’s oldest subdivisions.
Experts say people illegally moving into vacant housing is a growing issue in Orange County, one that can become a major headache for neighbors, a problem compounded by empty investment homes and hard-to-reach landlords.
