Squatting as Civil Disobedience
As foreclosures continue to force Americans out of their homes, some advocacy organizations are getting creative, suggesting that homeowners refuse to leave their foreclosed houses and helping others move into vacated abodes -- either openly or under the radar.
As foreclosures continue to force Americans out of their homes, some advocacy organizations are getting creative, encouraging homeowners to refuse to leave their foreclosed houses and helping others move into vacated abodes — either openly or under the radar.
Wait, before you go…The New York Times:
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.
The groups say that they have sometimes received support from neighbors and that beleaguered police departments have not aggressively gone after squatters.
“We’re 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. “They’re up to their eyeballs in this stuff. Everyone’s overwhelmed.”
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Although he has repeatedly insisted that his is not the role of a straight-up journalist and that he has no designs on a conventional political career, that doesn't stop people like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg from casting Jon Stewart in a nobler light .
True, the weather hardly ever departs from the ideal range, and the mountain and oceanside vistas (when visible through the smog) can make for picturesque living in Los Angeles provided you have somewhere to live For the homeless, as two advocacy agencies have noted, LA seems downright mean.
Watch the current president morph into the former president in this new video advertisement from the liberal advocacy group. | video
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