Homeless Seizing U.S.-Owned Houses

Homeless people armed with hammers and crowbars smashed into vacant government-owned houses in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and other major cities Monday in a nationwide protest.

The demonstrators, backed by labor leaders and homeless rights activists in some cases, occupied the houses in defiance of local and federal authorities and vowed to turn the buildings over to families who need shelter.

No Arrests Reported

There were no reports of arrests.

“We’re prepared to stay and defend the rights of our people to be here,” said Chris Sprowal, president of the Philadelphia-based National Homeless Union, which organized the protest.

“It’s crazy to let these houses stand vacant and boarded up . . . while women and children and men are homeless in the streets,” he said.

In demonstrations coinciding with the birthday of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the homeless groups seized vacant houses in Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, New York and New Orleans.

Sprowal led a group of about 25 homeless people and representatives of organized labor in battering down the door of a vacant southwest Philadelphia row house owned by the Veterans Administration.

The group refused to leave the house even after police officers arrived.

A Virtual Palace

The two-story frame house, repossessed by the VA last month after its owner defaulted on a loan, was coated with dust and mold, and layers of green paint flaked from the walls. But, to the demonstrators, it was a virtual palace.

“This is real nice. I could come to love a place like this,” said Bernard Evans, 28, a rescue shelter resident, as he inspected an upstairs bedroom. “With a little paint and some dry wall, I could fix this up in two days.”

Sprowal said the group planned to turn the house over to a homeless woman, who was expected to move in with her four children later in the day.

In Los Angeles, five homeless rights activists used a crowbar to break into a home recently repossessed from a veteran on 39th Place.

“Anybody who put their life on the line for this country should never be made homeless,” said Susan Gosman, spokeswoman for the Union of the Homeless. “For that reason, we have targeted a VA repossessed house.”

However, after the the protesters learned that the home was in escrow, they departed.

“We did not want to make another family homeless,” Gosman explained.

The union intends to take over another home today, she said, extending the occupation as part of its plan to alert the community to how many homes stand “needlessly vacant.”

In Washington, a group called the Coalition for the Homeless ripped boards from the windows of an empty VA-owned house and threw open its doors for use by homeless veterans and other people in need of shelter.

5-Story Building Seized

A homeless rights group in Boston seized a five-story building owned by the city and demanded that city officials give them the site as a headquarters for street people.