Thursday, April 09, 2009

With Advocates’ Help, Squatters Call Foreclosures Home - NYTimes.com

With Advocates’ Help, Squatters Call Foreclosures Home - NYTimes.com: "MIAMI — When the woman who calls herself Queen Omega moved into a three-bedroom house here last December, she introduced herself to the neighbors, signed contracts for electricity and water and ordered an Internet connection.What she did not tell anyone was that she had no legal right to be in the home.

Ms. Omega, 48, is one of the beneficiaries of the foreclosure crisis. Through a small advocacy group of local volunteers called Take Back the Land, she moved from a friend’s couch into a newly empty house that sold just a few years ago for more than $400,000.

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. "

-------------
I'd be careful which land I was trying to take. Might meet up with somebody who has a shotgun and no tolerance for squatters. I wonder what a feature in the NYT will do for the squatter population.

No comments: