Scoopy's Notebook: The What’s What on Squats

According to City Limits magazine, it's estimated that in the 1990s there were at least 500 - possibly as many as 1,000 - squatters illegally living in 32 abandoned buildings in the East Village and Lower East Side.  But as neighborhood real estate prices rebounded, evictions progressively whittled away at the squats' numbers. 

In 2002, the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, or UHAB - born in the ’70s to protect squatters’ rights - bought 11 of the 12 remaining East Village squats from the city for a symbolic price of $1 each, and promised to help the “homesteaders” (they were no longer officially called squatters) bring the buildings up to code and sell the units to the residents for a mere $250 each. That process is complete for 209 E. Seventh St., a 111-year-old building with 19 apartments, as of June 24. This is the third of the 11 former squats to be completed. “Three down, eight to go,” said UHAB Chief Operating Officer Michael Heitler.

The tenement is now being turned over to the residents, who are buying shares in what is now officially a “low-income cooperative.” Michael Shenker, a 209 E. Seventh St. resident, made some noise a couple of years ago when he objected to the cap on resale prices for the units. Others in Shenker’s building shared his view at the time, and the story was reported by The Villager. But when we spoke to Shenker this week, he said he isn’t fighting the conversion anymore, since he just doesn’t have the energy to do it right now. The state attorney general has already given approval for three more former East Village squats to be legally converted soon, including See Skwat, at 155 Avenue C, said Heitler. (We’ve been told there is no correct spelling for See Skwat, but that’s how Jerry The Peddler told us we should, or could, spell it.) The other two buildings reportedly in the pipeline for conversion soon are 733 E. Ninth St. and 719 E. Sixth St.

by Scoopy

Document: 

063010_The_Villager_Whats_What_on_Squats.pdf