Urban Homesteading
Urban homesteading is a form of self-help housing where abandoned private properties in urban areas are taken over by the building’s usually poor residents.
Sometimes this takes the form of squatting, which is not legal under many jurisdictions. Urban homesteading - in which residents rehabilitate the apartments through their own labor - may depart from squatting in some ways, especially philosophically.
While both groups may work initially with no permits, architectural plans or help from the government, self-help housing aims to manage the buildings cooperatively, and residents may work collaboratively with a non-profit organization or city government to legally obtain ownership of the building.
In some cases, urban homesteading is an organic phenomenon that evolves as a grassroots strategy of residents for dealing with a lack of affordable housing, or a sizable existence of abandoned, depressed, neglected or foreclosed housing stock. Some cities have used it as a solution to creating affordable housing.
Read more about this topic: Squatting
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