cyu
11th April 2009, 19:11
Excerpts from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/us/10squatter.html?_r=1&em
Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said about a dozen advocacy groups around the country were actively moving homeless people into vacant homes some working in secret, others, like Take Back the Land, operating openly.
In addition to squatting, some advocacy groups have organized civil disobedience actions in which borrowers or renters refuse to leave homes after foreclosure.
Were seeing sheriffs departments who are reluctant to move fast on foreclosures or evictions, said Bill Faith, director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, which is not engaged in squatting. Theyre up to their eyeballs in this stuff. Everyones overwhelmed.
Its a beautiful castle, and its temporary for me, she said, and if I can be here 24 hours, Im thankful. In the meantime, she said, she has instructed her adult son not to make noise, to be a good neighbor.
In Minnesota, a group called the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign recently moved families into 13 empty homes; in Philadelphia, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union maintains seven human rights houses shared by 13 families. Cheri Honkala, who is the national organizer for the Minnesota group and was homeless herself once, likened the groups work to a modern-day underground railroad...
Other groups, including Women in Transition in Louisville, Ky., are looking for properties to occupy, especially as they become frustrated with the lack of affordable housing and the oversupply of empty homes.
Ms. Honkala, who was a squatter in the 1980s, said the biggest difference now was that the neighbors were often more supportive. People who used to say, Thats breaking the law, now that theyre living on a block with three or four empty houses, theyre very interested in helping out, bringing over mattresses or food for the families, she said.
Most of the houses are in poor neighborhoods, where the neighbors are less likely to object.
Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said about a dozen advocacy groups around the country were actively moving homeless people into vacant homes some working in secret, others, like Take Back the Land, operating openly.
In addition to squatting, some advocacy groups have organized civil disobedience actions in which borrowers or renters refuse to leave homes after foreclosure.
Were seeing sheriffs departments who are reluctant to move fast on foreclosures or evictions, said Bill Faith, director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, which is not engaged in squatting. Theyre up to their eyeballs in this stuff. Everyones overwhelmed.
Its a beautiful castle, and its temporary for me, she said, and if I can be here 24 hours, Im thankful. In the meantime, she said, she has instructed her adult son not to make noise, to be a good neighbor.
In Minnesota, a group called the Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign recently moved families into 13 empty homes; in Philadelphia, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union maintains seven human rights houses shared by 13 families. Cheri Honkala, who is the national organizer for the Minnesota group and was homeless herself once, likened the groups work to a modern-day underground railroad...
Other groups, including Women in Transition in Louisville, Ky., are looking for properties to occupy, especially as they become frustrated with the lack of affordable housing and the oversupply of empty homes.
Ms. Honkala, who was a squatter in the 1980s, said the biggest difference now was that the neighbors were often more supportive. People who used to say, Thats breaking the law, now that theyre living on a block with three or four empty houses, theyre very interested in helping out, bringing over mattresses or food for the families, she said.
Most of the houses are in poor neighborhoods, where the neighbors are less likely to object.