...commit crimes. City-funded activist group teaches homeless how to invade apartments Itâs breaking and entering for dummies. Picture the Homeless, a Bronx nonprofit that has received at least $240,000 in taxpayer money in the last five years, is giving a crash course on squatting â and city-owned buildings are a prime target. Two weeks ago, board member Andres Perez held a teach-in on how to wrest âcontrolâ of vacant apartments. He called it âhomesteading.â âThe best time to enter a building is in the late hours,â he advised a group of about 20, who gathered in front of the half-empty East New York housing complex Arlington Village. âYou make sure you have your proper tools. You remove the chains and padlock, and then you go in.â He then led them through the next steps â including filling out a change-of-address form at the post office and setting up utilities. After that, ânine out of 10 times the courts will allow you to be able to have control of the property,â he said. But squatting school outraged legal residents of Arlington Village. âI canât let nobody squat where I live,â said Pete Rolon, 64, a 35-year resident who claimed pimps had grabbed two apartments in the complex. âThere were hookers. They were smoking crack. There were condoms all over the floor. There were hundreds of them.â He remembers when the complex of 12 two-story, red-brick buildings was filled with families and children playing. Police and residents eventually forced the sex-trade squatters out last fall, according to Rolon. Mohammed Hossain, the super at Arlington, where pads go for $600 to $1,000 per month, said complaints about homeless people breaking in to steal pipes and metal fixtures are common. âThe homeless people, they have no right to be squatting here,â he said. âIf they pay rent, thatâs different.â Residents also arenât happy about city tax money going to a group that preaches squatting. âThatâs not right,â said one longtime resident. âThat these guys are teaching classes on this â thatâs ridiculous.â The Web site for Picture the Homeless boasts a list of accomplishments that includes sending âdelegations to the World Social Forum in Brazil.â Perez, 46, a former city Housing Authority worker, said the group has âtwo major campaigns.â One is dedicated to opposing the NYPDâs âstop-and-friskâ policy. The other involves schooling people about âwarehousedâ property. Homesteading, he lectured, is a permanent occupation, while squatting is only temporary âclubhousing.â âThe best properties are city-owned properties or bank-owned properties,â he said. âThey warehouse these properties. Theyâre sitting on them.â Picture the Homelessâs annual taxpayer funding is approved by the City Council and administered through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. âWe absolutely donât condone the practice of squatting,â said HPD spokesman Eric Bederman. âItâs illegal, and itâs dangerous.â Bederman added that his agency has no control over Picture the Homelessâs funding. âItâs the City Councilâs decision,â he said. Robin Levine, a City Council spokeswoman, said, âWeâre deeply troubled by reports that Picture the Homeless is instructing New Yorkers in how to engage in dangerous and illegal activities. If these reports are in fact true, they call the groupâs entire funding into question.â http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/squat_the_heck_PkPnYm4W9CFGWgSg6gpHiL
Years ago I stopped into a "Social Justice Center" in the hood. (I was making a donation) I happen to read the "tenants bill of rights" posted on the wall. I asked the lady about this and said, "Something is missing on this list" Don't throw your garbage out the window, No urinating in the hall ways Flush the toilet once in a while No pets does not mean 3 cats and 4 dogs that you got for Chistmas. Renting out a matress to friends and other miscreants. so on and so forth.... Nobody cares...:eek: