Karin Dryhurst

Breaking and Entering

Housing activists occupied a San Francisco duplex this weekend in a protest to promote converting vacant buildings into affordable housing.

The head of the San Francisco Tenants Union Ted Gullickson blamed the housing bubble for stranding tenants:

Because of housing speculation during the real estate boom, "a lot of tenants were evicted," Gullicksen said. "Now a lot of those homes are sitting empty. The city should be doing something to turn vacant buildings into affordable housing."

Specifically, he said the city should foreclose on buildings where hefty back taxes are owed or use its powers of eminent domain to turn over long-vacant homes to nonprofit developers. The group is not advocating turning over the city's stock of new but unsold properties to the homeless.

Housing advocates around the country have been calling on cities to take action. Right to the City in New York recently conducted a survey of vacant condo buildings as part of its campaign to turn distressed buildings into affordable housing units.

Boston has been rehabilitating abandoned buildings for more than a decade. And between 1997 when the law was passed and 2007, the number of abandoned residential policies has declined 77 percent.

Karin Dryhurst: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 4:20 PM, Apr 05, 2010 in Housing
Permalink | Email to Friend