Although it is hard to hear what is really happening on the ground in U$A, it appears that recently there has been an increase in squatting in cities across the United States. Obviously, squatting is often a covert activity, but it seems that a few factors have dovetailed to facilitate the emergence of a new, public squatting movement. This sWatching the value of property melt away –
The increase in squatting across the U$Ahort article will provide a background to these events and a report of the actions which we have heard about. Hopefully these are merely the tip of the iceberg….
[Read More]
Watching the value of property melt away – The increase in squatting across the U$A
New York City: An interview with Rob Robinson from Picture the Homeless and Take Back the Land Movement
Published in “Brisbane From Below” n°1 (Brisbane, 2011).
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and how you became involved with Picture the Homeless?
No problem. I became involved with Picture the Homeless after spending 10 months in a NYC shelter. I was advocating within that shelter for better maintenance conditions, adherence to rules and better food. The director advised me to take my work to a higher level and I joined something called the New York City Coalition for the Continuum of Care (NYCCCoC). This group makes up 33% of the vote on how some 60-80 million USD are spent on homeless services. Picture the Homeless had access to the email list of (NYCCCoC) and I started to receive emails about the work they were doing. I showed up at a housing meeting in November 2006, liked what I heard and became a member. [Read More]
Seattle: Informal Update On Situation
The Turritopsis Nutricula house (named after an immortal jellyfish), located on 23rd and Alder in the Central District of Seattle, has now been in existence for a month. Within the span of that same month, over a dozen squats have also sprung into existence in as diverse places as Bellevue and White Center. One of them has recently set up a screen printing studio. An informal network of people from Occupy Seattle consistently brings food and supplies to the house on 23rd and Alder. The food is free for everyone who comes through the house.
This account is the personal reflections of one irregular resident of the Turritopsis Nutricula house and does not reflect the collective as a whole.
[Read More]
New York: Occupy Our Homes Moves Homeless Family Into Vacant Home
About 1,000 people flooded the streets of East New York on Tuesday, as Occupy Wall Street (OWS) arrived from the subway system from all five boroughs. Along with community organizations, the protesters took over a vacant foreclosed home in East New York for a homeless family of four.
[Read More]
USA: Declaration of Solidarity with Neighborhood Reclamations
Occupy Oakland, in solidarity with the Occupy movement and with the local community, has established the principle of claiming for open use the open space that has been kept from us. We are committed to helping this practice continue and grow. Here in Oakland, thousands of buildings owned by city, banks, and corporations stand idle and abandoned. At the same time social services such as healthcare, education, libraries and community spaces are being defunded and eliminated.
[Read More]
New York city: Organizing for Occupation
Hi people,
NYC Organizing for Occupation – O4O – having an inaugural event…
Flyer’s here.
info at commonlawnyc dot org
San Francisco: Squatters Demand Government Focus on Housing, not War
Leary of the chaos that consumed Market Street and much of downtown last year, at the dawn of Gulf War II, swarms of police wearing riot helmets and wielding billy clubs were prepared to contain Direct Action to Stop the War’s 7 a.m. gathering at Justin Herman Plaza and subsequent Bechtel Headquarters protest. But when a sub-group that had continued marching up Market turned onto Page Street, the police where caught off-guard. Occupied by keeping people on the sidewalks, distracted police were unable to prevent a group of about 25 squatters’ rights activists from storming through the entrance of an unoccupied building at 47 Page Street. The Autonomous Collective, a local anti-capitalist group, orchestrated the morning-long stand-off in order to draw attention to the affordable housing shortage and rampant homelessness that continue to plague San Francisco.
“Last night was the first time I slept in a bed in a month,” said Purple, a homeless youth, from inside the cavernous squat. “It’s really encouraging to see people unite to demand shelter, because this place is a lot better than Golden Gate Park. That crazy place is full of junkies who want to fight all the time. It’s not safe, plus if I can’t afford a place to sleep, how am I supposed to afford a ticket for sleeping outside?”
New York City Sells 11 Buildings to Squatters for $11
NYC Gives 11 Buildings to Squatters
U.S. National – AP | Tuesday August 20th, 2002
NEW YORK (AP) – The city has sold 11 apartment buildings on the Lower East Side for $1 a piece to a nonprofit developer, which will turn them over to squatters, many of whom have lived there illegally for years. [Read More]
Portland (Oregon): Squatting/street scenes
A report about squatting in Portland:
As far as the street kid scene here in Portland, our “community” is made up of several loose “families,” the Nihilistic Gutter Punx (of which I am the head) being one of them. There are a wide variety of kids on the streets here- gutter/squatter punx, self-proclaimed “yuppies,” wanna-be gangsters, straight up junkies, etc. While we usually stick to our own select groups, we all tend to back up our fellow street kids when the situation arises. [Read More]
Seattle: News about Tent City
As the working poor and homeless in Seattle experience the aftershock(s) of the current ‘economic boom’, a large group of homeless youth, women, men & children are responding to the growing need and shrinking options for one to find a safe place to sleep.
As area shelters run ‘at capacity’ each and every night, and hostility toward poverty, homelessness and shelter grows throughout the City Council and community, homeless folks have created what is known here locally as Tent City 3. [Read More]
New York City: Interview with Steven from the ABC No Rio
The ABC NO RIO has been one of the most famous squats in New York City, located in the lower east side.
For further informations about the ABC and about New York please visit their homepage at http://www.abcnorio.org!
For further informations about the ABC and about New York please visit their homepage at http://www.abcnorio.org!
Can you give me a general overview of the squatting situation in New York in the past thirty years? Squattting, rent-strikes, communtiy gardens …
I only have knowledge of the NYC scene for the past 15 years, predominately of the Lower East Side. Although I’m sure there were squats in the sixties and seventies I’ve never met any person who participated. Rent was cheap (relatively) back then, and the dereliction and abandonment that characterized many urban areas in America was just beginning.
(For further info on this process, which we call “Spatial Deconcentration” I refer you to article of same name by Yolanda Ward; if you do internet search on Yolanda Ward you’ll find it.) [Read More]
Seattle: Squatters’ week of success ends with impasse
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SQUATTERS’ WEEK OF SUCCESS ENDS WITH IMPASSE – LANDLORD RENEGES ON AGREEMENTS
After a successful building take-over on Sunday November 28th by anarchists, “The Squat” at 914 Virginia Ave, housed activists all week who were in town to protest the WTO. After six days a deal was made with the owner and all the squatters left without incidence. [Read More]
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