'Squatters took over our squat'

Remember that Miami group, Take Back the Land, that was just moving people into vacant homes? Similar movements have sprung up across the country. From the New York Times:

Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said about a dozen advocacy groups around the country were actively moving homeless people into vacant homes — some working in secret, others, like Take Back the Land, operating openly.

The story goes on to reference such groups in Ohio, Minnesota, Kentucky and Atlanta. Back in Miami:

But Take Back the Land has had to compete with less organized squatters, said Max Rameau, the group’s director.

“We had a move-in that we were going to do one day at noon,” he said. “At 10 o’clock in the morning, I went over to the house just to make sure everything was O.K., and squatters took over our squat. Then we went to another place nearby, and squatters were in that place also.”

Looks like squatting will not be going away any time soon, just based on the manpower and resources that would be required to turn it around:

Kelly Penton, director of communications for the City of Miami, said police officers needed a signed affidavit from a property’s owner — usually a bank — to evict squatters.

Signs of the times.

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: A bank-owned sign sits in front of a home in San Jose. Foreclosed homes have been the targets of vandals and some are being occupied by squatters. Credit: Tony Avelar / Bloomberg News

Venice: 'Where affluence and homelessness collide'

The ongoing problem of people living in RVs along commercial and residential streets in Venice is the subject of a video by The Times' Robert J. Lopez at latimes.com. Among interviewees are one motor home dweller and the owner of Flake restaurant.

Seems things have gotten so bad along Rose Avenue that the locals call it "Skid Rose" these days. Otherwise, it doesn't sound like much has changed since L.A. Land's Jan. 22 post on the issue.

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Sacramento's tent city to fold

Too much media attention can be a bad thing. At least that seems to be the case for a tent city of 200 that sprang up a year ago in Sacramento. From latimes.com:

Then this tattered encampment along the American River began showing up on Oprah Winfrey, Al Jazeera and other news outlets around the world. On Thursday, city officials announced that they will shut it down within a month.

"We're finding other places to go," said Steven Maviglio, a spokesman for Sacramento's mayor. The camp is "not safe. It's not humane. But we're not going in with a bulldozer."

The ragtag community captured the collective imagination through a powerful combination of geography, celebrity and journalistic convenience.

"This is the state capital of the seventh-largest economy in the world, with a movie-star governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and an NBA pro athlete for a new mayor, Kevin Johnson," said Barbara O'Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and Media at Cal State Sacramento. And the camp "is a wonderful visual for TV journalists."

"Wonderful visual" or not, the camp is what it is: home to the homeless, many of whom never imagined they'd find themselves in such a predicament. This is the only tent city in California that presents a photo op. Is it because the camp is inconveniently located in our state capital? Is anyone else struck by the mayoral spokesman's quote? "We're finding other places to go."

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Homeless construction worker Jim Gibson, 50, ponders his future standing outside a community tent used for cooking near a bank along the American River in Sacramento. Gibson lost his job 6 1/2 months ago and has been living in the tent city for 4 1/2 months. He spends his days looking for work in construction but has had no luck. "I'm embarrassed. This is hard for me to try and deal with this," Gibson said. Credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times

Venice residents up in arms over RVs clogging their streets

"Special zones urged for people who sleep in RVs, cars in Venice" Thursday at latimes.com looks at a problem more communities may be addressing as this economic downturn wears on:

Tough economic times have spilled onto the streets of Venice, which has become a favorite place to park for scores of otherwise homeless people living in cars and campers. The practice has ignited a mini-uprising among residents living in the pricey coastal community.

The number of cars and recreational vehicles has swelled so much over the last year that Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents the city's coastal areas, has proposed creating special zones away from neighborhoods where people can sleep in their vehicles.

"The community has been going ballistic," Rosendahl said.

Even though city laws prohibit sleeping in cars, about 200 people are living in them, according to the councilman. Both sides see problems with the proposal.

... some Venice residents said they feared that Rosendahl's plan might also designate certain residential streets in the beach-side community as RV zones.

"We don't believe the solution is turning residential areas into urban RV campgrounds," said Mark Ryavec, who heads the Venice Stakeholders Assn., which recently submitted to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the council a petition with 237 signatures of residents opposed to Rosendahl's proposal.

And some RV dwellers are opposed to moving away from schools their children are attending and concerned that their vehicles can't make the trip.

Santa Barbara has been dealing with this issue for the last four years with its "RV Safe Parking Program." Is your area experiencing a similar situation?

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: RVs crowd 7th Street in Venice. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times 

Putting his own bailout plan into action

Here's an alternative to letting homes sit empty. From the Associated Press story "Homeless advocates 'liberate' foreclosed houses":

Max Rameau delivers his sales pitch like a pro. "All tile floor!" he says during a recent showing. "And the living room, wow! It has great blinds."

But in nearly every other respect, he is unlike any real estate agent you've ever met. He is unshaven, drives a beat-up car and wears grungy cut-off sweat pants. He also breaks into the homes he shows. And his clients don't have a dime for a down payment.

Rameau is an activist who has been executing a bailout plan of his own around Miami's empty streets: He is helping homeless people illegally move into foreclosed homes.

"We're matching homeless people with people-less homes," he said with a grin.

Rameau and a group of like-minded advocates formed Take Back the Land, which also helps the new "tenants" with secondhand furniture, cleaning supplies and yard upkeep. So far, he has moved six families into foreclosed homes and has nine on a waiting list.

Any organized "squatting" happening here in Southern California?

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Max Rameau stands outside a "people-less" house in Miami. Credit: J. Pat Carter

The 'parking lot' homeless of Santa Barbara

This one is a bit off-topic for an L.A. housing blog, but it caught my eye: a CNN story about a woman who can't afford to rent any longer in Santa Barbara who now lives in her car in a city-sanctioned parking lot for the homeless.

The woman, a former loan processor named Barbara Harvey, is 67 years old and lives with her dogs in a Honda SUV. "This is my bed, my dogs," she said. "This is my life in this car right now."

The L.A. Times profiled parking lot residents in Santa Barbara on New Year's Eve last year: "All are beneficiaries of the city-sanctioned Safe Parking program, which allows people to live -- sometimes for years -- in cars or RVs in about a dozen parking lots that belong to the city, the county, churches, nonprofits and a few businesses in industrial areas."

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.

Photo: Boyd Grant 63, prepares to spend the night in his 31-year old GMC motor home parked at the food bank parking lot in Goleta. (L.A. Times)