Don't just stand there – squat
N.Y. just gave 11 buildings to the squatters who fixed them up. Could the same thing happen here?

By Cassi Feldman

Hidden in every city across America are people who are forced – or choose – to live on the fringes, to settle in abandoned buildings and make the most of what they find. Sometimes that means living without heat, light, and running water. Sometimes it means fending off police officers or angry landlords. But for 250 squatters in New York City, it just got a whole lot easier.

In a dramatic policy shift, the city turned over 11 Lower East Side apartment buildings to the individuals and families who have lived in them illegally for decades. Under the agreement, finalized Aug. 19, the city will sell the buildings for $1 each to the nonprofit Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, which will bring them up to code and then offer them back to tenants as limited-equity co-ops that can never be sold for a profit.

Some of the residents have expressed concern that they won't be able to afford the rehab and maintenance costs on their improved apartments, but most see a symbolic victory. After all, it wasn't long ago that Mayor Rudolph Giuliani sent cops in riot gear to try to evict them. So what's changed? And, more important, what does it mean for San Francisco?

Though Marina Metalios, project director for New York's UHAB, is still somewhat mystified by the decision, she said it's also quite practical, a way for the city to provide affordable housing without investing any money. In a neighborhood "assaulted by the development of luxury housing," she said, "these buildings are going to be an oasis."

With average rent still hovering around $2,000 for a two-bedroom apartment, San Francisco could certainly use such an oasis. But it probably won't get one anytime soon, said Ted Gullicksen, who helped start Homes Not Jails to advocate for the better use of vacant and surplus land. For one thing, we have very few city-owned abandoned properties; owners are too smart to let such a valuable commodity slip through their fingers. And the squatting movement here simply isn't as strong. "New York has a more active community because there are more buildings available," he said. "That builds up tolerance over the long term."

Peter Plate, a local novelist, agrees. When he was evicted from his Mission District apartment in 1985, he spent seven years in a squat before he was discovered and forced out. He doesn't think he could get away with it today. "It's harder to do extralegal appropriation," he said. "The police have been alerted to the issue of homelessness."

Plate and others point out the irony in how a city with 11,000 to 14,000 people living on the streets would work so hard to keep empty housing empty. Giant buildings that could house hundreds are left vacant for speculative purposes or because they're considered structurally unsound – as if living outdoors were any safer. Local squatters we spoke with said it had become difficult to find a place that would last for more than a few months.

"Karen" (not her real name) estimates that she lived in 12 different buildings during her two years as a squatter in San Francisco. Sometimes she was able to stay put for months; other times, she'd come home to find her stuff gone or the building padlocked. "It was really bad psychologically," she said. "We didn't have the physical or mental energy to do anything more than just survive."

Not everyone squats out of necessity, however. Salim, a 33-year-old anarchist, has taken over a vacant Pacific Heights mansion to make a political point. "Everybody has a right to housing," he said. "People shouldn't be profiteering off of other people's right to shelter."

Yet even if the private real estate market remains untouchable, the city could start changing the way it handles publicly owned land. In May, Sup. Chris Daly introduced legislation that would make it easier for San Francisco to recapture surplus property to use for affordable housing (see "This Land Is Your Land," 5/8/02).

Former and current squatters told us they'd like to see other new laws that would make it easier for the city to take over buildings with long-standing code violations or give illegal tenants more protection.

In the meantime, they're inspired by what happened in New York. "It speaks to the diligence and the intelligence of [those squatters]," Plate said. "They had a vision, they had a mission, and they were determined not to fail."

E-mail Cassi Feldman at cassi@sfbg.com.