Foreclosure Nation: Squatters or Pioneers?
Take Back the Land installs homeless families in foreclosed Miami-Dade County properties. Here's what the neighbors think.
Mamyrah Prosper steps gingerly over ankle-high grass strewn with plastic bags and empty soda bottles in the yard of a vacant redbrick house in Miami's Liberty City. She peers through a gap in a boarded-up window. "It looks in good shape," she says. "I mean, the walls aren't falling down. This is definitely one of our stronger options."
Prosper means that if the place checks out, she and her colleagues from Take Back the Land, a local group that advocates for affordable housing, will break in, change the locks, paint and clean, innovate a way to connect water and electricity, and then move a homeless family into the house. The criminal laws they'll violate in the process range from trespassing to breaking and entering (even burglary, if the police get ambitious), which requires the organization to keep a pro bono lawyer on standby.
"We call it 'liberating the housing,'" says Take Back the Land's cofounder Max Rameau, a compact Haitian American who's earned a reputation in Miami for creative activism. In 2006, Take Back received widespread attention when it took over a vacant city lot and erected a shantytown for the homeless that thrived for six months—that is, until a resident's candle burned down the encampment. Rameau's latest, and even more legally dubious, campaign targets homes shuttered by foreclosure.
In Greater Miami, there's no shortage of those. Last year, Miami-Dade County recorded 26,391 foreclosures, a nearly threefold increase from 2006, and the pace has only quickened since then. Meanwhile, public housing is in crisis; at least four people are in line for each of the 10,000 available units, and the local housing agency—spectacularly corrupt, even by Miami standards—was taken over by the federal government last year.
Communities nationwide have seen a deluge of properties left vacant by foreclosures, but housing advocates say they've yet to witness anything like Rameau's coordinated squatting campaign. "That's the first I've heard of that kind of direct action," says Linda Couch, deputy director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Low Income Housing Coalition. "It's incredibly frustrating for housing advocates knowing that there are so many vacant houses amid so many people on the brink of homelessness."
Rameau says Take Back's campaign has two objectives: "One is to actually house people. The other is to bring attention to the contradictions in housing policy. The problem is that doing one precludes the other." Drawing too much attention to Take Back's efforts, he explains, would also get the attention of law enforcement. So Rameau's organization has placed only two homeless families in foreclosed homes since the campaign began in October; the first was Cassandra and Jason, a couple in their late 20s, and their two small children. They'd been living in a van before Rameau moved them into a one-story stucco home in Liberty City. When I visited them in February, Cassandra, who works as a street vendor selling jewelry and incense, ushered me into the living room, furnished with two chairs, a moving trunk, and a small television. Bedsheets covered the windows, and the walls had just been painted saffron.
As far as the neighbors are concerned, the current tenants—squatters though they are—are a vast improvement over the crack den the vacant house had become. One neighbor even loaned the family electricity via an extension cord until a mysterious man sympathetic to Take Back's cause turned on power at the house. "I didn't ask any questions," Cassandra says. The new living situation, temporary as it might be, affords her and Jason the time to save up to rent a new apartment, she said. "This just takes the stress off."
According to the Miami-Dade County Housing Agency, squatters, if discovered, will be promptly removed from the premises and potentially prosecuted. So far, though, Take Back's foreclosure-squatting pioneers have avoided detection. Despite the dicey legality, Rameau says there are 14 families like Cassandra's on his waiting list. "We counsel them that they could be arrested if caught," he says. "But things are so desperate, they are willing to risk it."
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It seems a rather odd circle, kicking families out of their homes, and then secretly moving them into another displaced family's home. Maybe the banks should just rent back the foreclosed home to the original family for a few bucks a month, at least until the house sells. But for the houses to sit empty while the number of homeless families increases is asinine.
Now I remember why I used to read MotherJones! Great article - great subject - great cause!
This is a great idea. Breaking the law, sure. But a great idea all the same. We might as well put people in these homes.
Like we say, here in Brazil: it may be illegal, but definitely not immoral to break a law that is, on itself, wrong.
Kicking families out of their homes serves no one, not even the rich corporations that are foreclosing the properties and, in many ways, harms the future of the whole country.
The depth of inequality is directly proportional to the violence it generates.
Oddly it appears that TBL is doing a favor for the banks as well. A house that is occupied and maintained will likely hold its value better than a vacant one, thus fetch a better price at a foreclosure sale. Hopefully the inhabitants find somewhere permanent by that time.
Does anyone know how long it takes to establish Squatter's Rights in Miami?
For the poor, it will only get worse. This is just the tip of the melting, iceberg. BBC news has a article about ainternational aide for health care. They use to fly into Africa, now they fly into the USA. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7420744.stm
This fiasco is brought to you by the
same kind folks that brought you
the Savings and Loan debacle of the
80's. In other words,"compassionate
conservatism".
al8la so le therowan
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الفنانين
Prosecute these socialist a..h...s to the full extent. Sick to death of so called activist scum!
The US is becoming a third world nation.
Almost everything is imported in the name of profits and little is exported in the name of profits.
This world has become devastated in the name of profits.
When can the people of this world become more important that profits?
When corporations are controlled!
katz22, I like your sentecne,"The depth of inequality is directly proportional to the violence it generates." Mind if I post it on my motivational board?
...about time someone had the wherewithal to fuse the homeless crisis with the foreclosure crisis. Its a match made in hell, and in need of a shotgun wedding, but had to happen sooner or later...
Disclaimer:
I think it's wrong put people out of their homes BUT when I see friends and neighbours racking up consumer debt, having two new cars, new everything for their house, you gotta ask yourself WHO PAYS FOR ALL THIS STUFF?
There has to be some consequence to over-spending (like foreclosure) or everyone would just keep spending.
It's part of a bigger disconnect with financial reality that seems to affect a lot of people. Not everyone can have everything, and there'll be fewer foreclosures when more people opt to live within their means.
re: corporations need to be controlled
It's up to individuals to exercise self-control - all else flows from that.
don't try to talk sense to capitalism or it's pet "law"
yes prosecute those socialists for their thought crime
When was the last time a poor homeless person offered you a job, helped pay your home heating bill, or filled your gas tank????
Begs the question: Why does foreclosure mean kicking people out of their home? Why doesn't the bank just assign control of the home to a management company and then rent to the same family? They're going to sell the house for pennies on the dollar anyway; it doesn't really matter if the rental rate is lower than the mortgage payment. It wouldn't be anyway if they quit factoring in the interest.
Alternately, the city could buy the house from the bank for whatever the remaining balance is (principal only), rent to the family and sell the house to someone else who could afford it once the family finds a place *they* can afford. Win-win-win. It would be cheaper than building more homeless shelters, afford the family more dignity and help avoid some of the problems we see in cities with large numbers of empty houses and the attendant crime.
And while I agree people shouldn't take on homes they can't afford, banks also should not tell people they can afford something when that isn't true. And just because you can't afford your mortgage anymore doesn't mean you deserve to be homeless. I can't afford a mortgage; does that mean I should live on the street? No, that means I rent. It isn't difficult to figure out. We need to quit being so cruel to one another in the name of "responsibility."
Renting
Yes of course! Renting is the answer?! Why is it, that responsible, hardworking people should NOT be able to own a home? And, why have the banking and housing industries provided the people with financial mirages for dwellings more like palaces than houses-- not to mention irresponsible urban sprawl and the media's hand in inspiring the "new, bloated" American dream-- 12 rooms and 10 acres of front yard. On what planet is this real-- as far as having a place to live is concerned?
Americans are being conned by advertising and TV shows to believe they can own anything and the banks are all too ready to show them how. Enter the strangle hold-- years of debt, slippery slide into poverty, while financial institutions rake in vast profits from balloon mortgages and other slights of hand, fees, contract charges, and fine print chicanery. America IS its PEOPLE and the people are losing everything!
AS for renting as a solution here? Does anyone hear serf, tenant farmer, slum lord, dust bowl "Oakies?" I was part of America's working poor for almost thirty years, paying rent in rundown buildings to landlords three states away. With the money I threw toward this wealthy investor, I could have owned a home four times over! The money that renters pay each month is totally gone for them-- and after thirty years of payments, I left empty-handed. Something is incredibly unjust here.
Correction in first para: The rent *would* be lower than the mortgage if they quit factoring in the interest.
Somerbody hand them a lease, that way they're not squatters and have tenants rights. Its not much but it should hasten being put out on the streets as quickly.
We're supposed to be Corporate "EQUALS", when are the Courts going to start acting like it!
Dana, you are brilliant! And,thanks Granger for the link. It scared me to my bones. I forwarded it to everyone I know.
I live next to a vacant house that has been taken over by 2 men squatters. I just hate it. I don't know who these men are and I can't even let my 4 yr old son play in our own backyard fearing the worst. I've had things taken from my yard and no one, but no one is going to buy a house that has a squatter living in it. To some squatting is ok but to me, it's breaking the law. These men will not talk to me and honestly, I fear for the safty of my family.
Thats all the more reason to support a program like this. One of the requirements for all squatters should be that they must get to know their neighbors.
Squatting may be illegal, but its morally correct. There should be no empty homes
I wish those who oppose humanity would be blessed to journey in low-means. Only then, will they feel compassion/concern for people like me, who grew up in a middle-class income family, but now lower-income. I'm not going to live in the street when 3 to 4 houses per block are bank-abandoned, not maintained, turned into eye-sores or drug dens. I maintain my home and neighboring homes. I am a blessing to my community, and am organizing caring neighbors to do the same. So, you narrow-minded, mean-spirited, spoiled, ungodly, uncaring Reagan/Bush-ites, humble yourselves, as pride comes before a fall. Today, it's me, but beware, tomorrow, it could be you!
Heart o love, give thanks
Heart o love, give thanks for the ova standing, not a soul has bothered to inquire of our situation ending in homelessness, it is the end result to yes...the Bushites and dragging their tails, we were in a home paying 1200 a month, hurricane, landlords=slumlords, I was 7 months pregnant, after hurricane wilma, my King lost his slave, and upon seeking assistance for our housing situation, we were tuld by the city of ft.lauderdale, "it is best you sleep in your van, it's more shelter than we can give you, at least you have it" then after deeming the house unfit to live after the storms, the judges awarded the SLUMLORDS , and we got evicted,PLUS lost court fees, costs strivin to do right, now we are in miami"where the big boys play hard" "what? yall need a place to sleep, sure...which address would you like to see?" so according to morality, we chose miami, until we could do better, but for hard working, rent payers, where's the justice for our family, who today STILL struggles because of the city of fort lauderdale, and the "JUST ICE " shitstem?
InI serve a living God, JUST US IS SERVED!!!!
Selah SIS, link up
Perfect love
Please explain your side show of racie
materials attached to your website that is to help ppl? and the kkk?????
what's up???
I think that there needs to be more Max Rameaus in the world! I think that we need to redesign our housing system to provide stable residency in times of economic decline.
I agree with another poster that banks should rent out their foreclosed homes (and I hear that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are starting to do this to some degree). If I were a bank I would also be donating some of my foreclosed homes to groups like Take Back the Land, Habitat for Humanity, and others too. They should be regonized that providing housing for the poor is a valuable service to make land values better and reduce the amount of crime on our streets and reduce the number of homeless children. More importantly, I would work with groups like Take Back the Land to give temporary occupancy permits for free or low cost to the families for shorter term until the foreclosed home sells. After all, a home that is lived in and taken care off will hold its value better than a home that is vacant, abandonded, gutted, and ridden with teen parties or has been a hideout for drug dealers.
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