Occupy Activists Occupying Houses and Settling in it Needy Families

The Occupy activists in New York and elsewhere are actually occupying houses and settling in needy families like that of Tasha Glasgow, while the police look on.New York apartment blocks are ideal for these squatters. Tasha has returned to the apartment where she once stayed as tenant. When the house was foreclosed she had to exit running from shelter to shelter with her two small kids. She has returned to her previous address, with the help of Occupy members since the apartment has been lying empty ever since she left it. The father of her children, Alfredo Carrasquillo has moved to another squat – a better one in Brooklyn with the help of the protestors. With much publicity and fanfare replete with house warming balloons he had moved in and getting it ready to bring back his children and Tasha. There is no surety of their staying on but at least a fight has been put up and it will not be child’s play to throw them out easily. It has not become the new norm as yet but the tendency is moving towards that. There is a limit to how much the people can take. The realtors often offer dollars in cash to the unlawful occupants. Tasha thinks she might get an offer of $2,000. Representatives of Bank of America said that immediately they will not take any action against Carrasquillo although he is openly violating the law and squatting in a house in Brooklyn. Jumana Bauwens of the bank said, “The foreclosure has not been completed so we are not in a legal position to take any action”. She explained that the policy of the bank was to protect and make secure properties for the investors – the owners. She added that to the bank foreclosure has always been the last alternative. In another case, that of Catherine Lennon of Rochester, Bank of America had retreated. Fifty year old Lennon had been evicted from her house last March following the accusation by BofA that she was defaulting on mortgage dues. Lennon denied this. An organization Take Back the Land came forward to help her and put her back into the house that had been lying vacant since her eviction. The group had staged protests and held news conferences that discouraged the bank from going ahead with another eviction. At Chicago another eviction victim Martha Briggs was brought back to her previous home by the Occupy group last June. Following her exit from the house she had been living with her four children in a minivan. The activists renovated her house and made it comfortable. The aim is simple – put inside homes without people, people without homes.