[SpicyLemonZest]

Most people see a vast moral difference between failing to pay a debt you owe and taking something that doesn't belong to you in the first place. If you broke into an unoccupied apartment and squatted there, that'd be at least as stealing food from a grocery store.

[gruez]

If an apartment is unoccupied, chances are it's used for speculation and/or short term rentals. If that's the case, I'd rank squatting better than stealing and failing to pay your rent. I'm sure others share this position, given posts like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22852570.

[SpicyLemonZest]

Or it's being renovated, or someone's due to move in next month, or all kinds of legitimate reasons. I'm definitely on board with the idea that people should be structurally discouraged from owning housing they don't plan to put to use, but enforcing that by allowing people to steal non-compliant housing seems pretty bad.