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A 54 Year Old Woman Kicked Out of Her House for Living Off-Grid

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By Amelia Kinney

Robin Speronis has gained national notoriety for her highly public battle to live off-grid.

Although it’s impossible to be certain, it is estimated that between 180,000 and 250,000 people in the United States are living off-grid, disconnected from public utilities and using only self-reliant systems. One highly controversial off-gridder in Cape Coral, Florida, Robin Speronis, a 54 year old widow, has gained national attention for fighting her local government to stay off-grid.

Speronis’s off-grid story, as reported by Bloomberg, began in 2010 when her husband died of a degenerative neurological condition at age 84. Caring for him until his death left Speronis low on funds and in mortgage default. Despite zero prior experience outdoors or camping, Speronis moved into an RV on a wooded rental property.

“I had never even gone camping,” said Speronis “but nothing was hard. Every time I did something it was easier than I thought it was going to be. I thought, ‘I can do this. I can do this myself.’ ” But Speronis soon stopped paying the rent and was evicted.

Speronis then moved into a house purchased from a friend. She sold all the appliances. The house was already off the electrical grid, and the only connection Speronis had to the city municipal system was the waste she flushed down the toilet using harvested rainwater.

Credit: Bloomberg

“I can go weeks or a month without spending a penny,” says Speronis, who subsisted on canned and dried foods. She recorded her experience on a blog, “Off the Grid Living in Southwest Florida—One Woman’s Story”. As her blog gained popularity, she was approached last November by Liza Fernandez, a reporter for local Fox affiliate WFTX, with the idea to do a story on Speronis.

In Fernandez’s broadcast documenting Speronis’s unconventional lifestyle, she noted that Speronis was breaking “most codes and ordinances” of Cape Coral and furthermore “anyone caught living in such a home could be forcibly removed.” The next day, Cape Coral came knocking on Speronis’s door. She didn’t answer.

City officials posted a placard on Speronis’s door, declaring the property unfit for human habitation, and citing code violations. “There are an awful lot of alternatives out there that meet code. The problem is that she is not using those methods.” said the city’s code compliance officer, Frank Cassidy.

Credit: Bloomberg

Speronis turned to famed attorney Todd Allen to take on her case. The Rutherford Institute, a right-wing libertarian organization, paid her legal fees. Fox and other media outlets continued to run stories on Speronis, and the community rallied around her. “Cape Coral needs to be afraid of me,” she said. “I’m not afraid of them.”

Cape Coral cited 36 code and ordinance infractions, but 33 were dismissed in court due to lack of evidence. Speronis was given three months to rectify the violations, but city officials soon showed up to cut her access to the sewer system. Then, on May 14, Speronis was arrested on a misdemeanor animal cruelty charge. She stayed in jail for over a month, before the city abruptly dropped the charges and she was allowed to return home.

“I subscribe to the way she wants to live, and the government is trying to restrict her in ways that don’t make sense,” said attorney Todd Allen, after Speronis dismissed him from her case. “But I’m concerned that she is trying to fight the fight just to fight it.” Bloomberg reports“For now, Speronis is home, off the grid, and outside the law.”

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    Total 7 comments
    • Andy

      Big Brother just can’t stand the idea that we don’t need them nor their inane rules

      • Radiance

        Totally agree. It’s not like she’s hurting anyone or the environment. The idea that the law is the law has to go into the dumpster.

    • raburgeson

      Worthless politicians and nanny state. Oh my God they do not have complete control of this woman. They stopped sleeping at night and need a paper bag every 5 minutes so they can breath.

    • Sucking Chest Wound

      We’re all just cows in their eyes, to be herded, branded and milked of money.

      What do you think will happen to a cow that doesn’t provide milk?

      Protest with your vote. Vote the council OUT to a man, that is seen to harass the struggling and weak among the community. There is no place for the likes of them in public ‘service’.

    • Anonymous

      Firstly, I recognize that none of these suggestions are freedom from encroachment. There should not be any need to play a rhetorical chess game, with a petty clerk / civil servant, who has a god complex.

      But –

      A generic house would have passed inspection, at the time of sale.

      It says a note was placed, on the front door. Unfortunately, in these days, there is no good reason for someone to be allowed casual entrance onto a property. I know that’s not a very relaxed way to look at things, and she is clearly easy-going.

      On larger estates, I have seen stucco, ceramic tile, or cinder block enclosures, where meters are kept, :arrow: off the premises, near the road or easement. Like the small structures, which surround dumpsters, in mini malls.

      Lastly, several, easy compromises would have allowed the house to stay up-to-code. For instance, why do the water pipes need to be physically removed from the wall, when they are already pre-existing. You can just turn off the basin feed. If you had to replace those parts, that can be turned off, without attracting negative attention.

      The lantern could be set on the counter top. You are allowed to keep one there, without commenting as to how it is used, etc.

      Alot of operational infrastructure seems to have been taken apart, when it could have just been allowed to remain, for rare, intermittent use — generally away from prying eyes. I make no excuse for it, but was also never under the assumption that I have lived in a free country, in my times.

      To me, it is not just a philosophical argument, because the agents are menacing, in nature. You are complying, under duress. It is not constructive, to engage a praetor or commissar, in political debate, or to mistakenly believe that you are fraternizing with them, except to get useful, generic information.

    • Arte Vespule

      This is a misnomer. I heard this one before. She wasn’t kicked out for being off grid. She was kicked out for using the sewer system without paying for it, which is a crime. Her contention was because she wasn’t using municipal water she should not have to pay for the sewer portion. She was wrong…

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