Take Back the Land

The group advocates for changes in governmental housing policy.[4] Max Rameau, the homeless advocate running the program, called it "morally indefensible to have vacant homes sitting there, potentially for years, while you have human beings on the street".[2] Rameau says that the group only moves families into government- or bank-owned properties, and argues that it is not fair for the banks to be receiving government bailouts while keeping these assets.[8]

Rameau states that having people occupy the buildings helps the owners by preventing looting and property destruction that he says would likely happen to unoccupied buildings.[8][9] He also says that the group requires that tenants get electricity and provides solar panels if the electricity does not work.[8] Take Back the Land activists help maintain and clean the yards of the squatted houses, and they give the families cleaning supplies and furniture.[9] The group gains access to unoccupied houses, paints and cleans them, changes the locks, and connects electricity and water.[10] Rameau says each occupation costs the group $200.[11] Take Back the Land instructs tenants of the houses to occupy the houses openly; they enter and leave through the front door, pay for utilities in their own names, and are honest with neighbors.[7] The families live in the houses they occupy until they either save up enough money to afford to pay for housing or are forcibly evicted by police.[2]

The group maintains a waiting list of families who would like to move into foreclosed homes.[10] Rameau says tenants are carefully chosen in order to avoid creating crack houses; drug addicts are rejected, and participants are assessed for their "urgency of need".[7]

According to Rameau, he had approached banks in 2008 with the idea of buying them for a discount price and renting them to homeless people; they seemed interested at first but he says they stopped calling him back after the 2008 federal bailout was announced.[2]

Take Back the Land uses illegal tactics.[12] The group commits trespassing[13] and tenants could be charged with crimes such as vandalism.[9] Rameau says, "there's a disconnect between the need and the law. Being arrested is just one of the potential factors in doing this."[9] The tenants are told that they may be arrested if caught.[10] Take Back the Land has a pro-bono lawyer on standby.[10][14] Kelly Penton, a spokesperson for the city of Miami, said that the city was not taking action to stop Take Back the Land's activities stating that "it is up to the property owner".[9] As of December 2008, police had not gotten involved.[3]

Take Back the Land was originally formed in 2006 as an anti-gentrification organization[4] inspired by the Landless Workers' Movement in Brazil and the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign in South Africa.[15] The group built the Umoja Village in Miami in 2006, a shantytown on an undeveloped lot in support of the "black community's right to own land".[7] Fifty homeless people lived in the village.[4] After the village burned down in April 2007, the group moved 14 of the ex-residents into a warehouse.[7] Max Rameau released a book detailing the experience entitled Take Back the Land: Land, Gentrification and the Umoja Village Shantytown.[16]

Partly due to overbuilding and speculation, Florida, and particularly Miami, have been affected by the housing crisis in the late 2000s recession.[3] In September 2008, Florida had the second highest rate of foreclosures in the country.[3]

Take Back the Land moved the first family into an unoccupied house on October 22, 2007.[7] By November 2008, it had opened up six houses,[7] and by April 2009, the group had moved 20 families into foreclosed homes.[6]

• Takebacktheland.org