Lower East Side Squats Go Legal

Louis Lingg writes "On August 19 the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development transferred ownership of eleven of the twelve remaining squatted buildings on New York's Lower East Side to the Urban Homestead Assistance Board (UHAB), a nonprofit housing development agency. UHAB, in turn, will provide assistance in expeditiously completing renovation of the buildings, and will then turn the properties over to the tenants. The buildings will become low-income limited-equity tenant-owned and managed buildings.

Negotiations for this 'deal' began in 1999 when the Giuliani administration was still in office, but were delayed by the events of September 11. By early August 2002 the New York City Council, the Borough President and Mayor Bloomberg had all approved the 'deal.'

Urban affairs journal City Limits has posted Squatters Rites, an article examining how an almost two-decades long stand-off was finally resolved. The New York Times is also covering the story."