Homes Not Jails
Encyclopedia
Homes Not Jails is an American
organization that emerged from two of San Francisco's prominent activist
organizations Food Not Bombs
and the San Francisco Tenants Union and describes itself as an all-volunteer organization committed to housing homeless people through direct action
. The group was formed in 1992. Homes Not Jails does public actions as well as legislative advocacy and squatting
(occupying empty buildings for free). Homes not jails groups do "housing takeovers", acts of civil disobedience
in which vacant buildings are publicly occupied, to demonstrate the availability of vacant property and to advocate that it be used for housing. The group has done many such occupations. Homes Not Jails has also done and assisted with hundreds of "covert" squats in which vacant buildings are broken into so that people in need of housing can move in.
Invoking squatters' rights, Homes Not Jails has filed for legal ownership of a squat opened in 1993 through a process called adverse possession
. Homes Not Jails adheres to three main principles: nonviolence, no drugs, and consensus decision-making. These principles apply to both types of Homes Not Jails occupation: covert squats, and public takeovers of symbolic buildings. Homes Not Jails also encourages city and state officials to use their eminent domain powers to declare unused and vacant buildings a public nuisance, take them over and use them for low cost housing.
as a tactic since its first public takeover. The group began in fall of 1992 with the takeover of a building at 90 Golden Gate Avenue in the Tenderloin district. On Thanksgiving Day, shortly after this first occupation, the group held a rally and marched to another building at 250 Taylor street, and publicly occupied it. There were originally about 30 members. Homes Not Jails has had extensive media coverage of its advocacy in support of affordable housing, its covert housing of people in vacant buildings, and its protection of buildings slated for demolition.
In 2007 in California Homes Not Jails pushed for passage of a state bill, SB464, which would discourage housing speculation by requiring a five year ownership before property owners can evict tenants under the Ellis Act
and give all tenants a year to find new housing if a senior or disabled person resides in the building.
In 1999, Homes Not Jails tried to claim ownership of a vacant house at 715 Page St. in San Francisco. Homes Not Jails contended that squatters had occupied the building for five years and the organization paid more than $5,000 in back property taxes in order to claim adverse possession
of the building. Homes Not Jails was denied ownership, because it unable to prove continuous occupation for the previous five years.
San Francisco Supervisor Angela Alioto
introduced legislation in 2004 sponsored by Homes Not Jails that would allow the city to seize abandoned buildings and give them to nonprofit housing groups; these could employ homeless people to repair and live in them.
January 25, 1997 Members of Homes Not Jails in Boston MA, occupied a long vacant building called "The Alexandria Hotel" a 110 year old building that was previously used as a bachelors boarding house. The locks had previously been replaced with members own locks and a march was planned. At one o'clock when the march arrived at the unoccupied building the Homes Not Jails members unlocked the gates and held a symbolic "open house" for the invited homeless. Police arrested and charged seven activists with trespassing and breaking and entering.
January 18, 2001 homeless advocates, including members of Homes Not Jails, D.C., the Homeless Association and other organizations hung from an empty HUD-owned home a banner that reads, "HOUSING FOR PEOPLE, NOT FOR PROFIT." Activists also carried cardboard coffins to the home, located at 3602 New Hampshire Ave. in Washington D.C., stacked them there, and hung a second banner that says, "OUR PEOPLE FREEZE OUTSIDE EMPTY HUD HOUSES".
On Saturday, April 7, 2007 at the 24th Street BART Station Homes Not Jails, with the San Francisco Tenants Union, the San Francisco Peoples’ Organization, the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club
, Religious Witness with Homeless People, St. Peter’s Housing Committee, some other organizations and approximately 150 housing activists, protested Ellis Act evictions with a march and building occupation in downtown San Francisco. Supporters attempted to supply the occupiers with food and water, but police confiscated the rope and bucket being used and detained any supporters attempting to supply the occupiers.
, Supplemental Security Income
, or Aid to Families with Dependent Children
. Homes Not Jails proposes an alternative model for people who are destitute and need to do labor instead of pay rent. The use of sweat equity decreases the amount of government funding needed to make affordable units available, and for more complex building skills such as architecture
or engineering
Homes Not Jails has historically relied on volunteer work. The underlying principle is to have residents do the work on their own housing and greatly reduce the cost of running a large non-profit organization that would contract out or source volunteers to help in construction efforts.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
organization that emerged from two of San Francisco's prominent activist
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
organizations Food Not Bombs
Food Not Bombs
Food Not Bombs is a loose-knit group of independent collectives, serving free vegan and vegetarian food to others. Food Not Bombs' ideology is that myriad corporate and government priorities are skewed to allow hunger to persist in the midst of abundance...
and the San Francisco Tenants Union and describes itself as an all-volunteer organization committed to housing homeless people through direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
. The group was formed in 1992. Homes Not Jails does public actions as well as legislative advocacy and squatting
Squatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
(occupying empty buildings for free). Homes not jails groups do "housing takeovers", acts of civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
in which vacant buildings are publicly occupied, to demonstrate the availability of vacant property and to advocate that it be used for housing. The group has done many such occupations. Homes Not Jails has also done and assisted with hundreds of "covert" squats in which vacant buildings are broken into so that people in need of housing can move in.
Invoking squatters' rights, Homes Not Jails has filed for legal ownership of a squat opened in 1993 through a process called adverse possession
Adverse possession
Adverse possession is a process by which premises can change ownership. It is a common law concept concerning the title to real property . By adverse possession, title to another's real property can be acquired without compensation, by holding the property in a manner that conflicts with the true...
. Homes Not Jails adheres to three main principles: nonviolence, no drugs, and consensus decision-making. These principles apply to both types of Homes Not Jails occupation: covert squats, and public takeovers of symbolic buildings. Homes Not Jails also encourages city and state officials to use their eminent domain powers to declare unused and vacant buildings a public nuisance, take them over and use them for low cost housing.
History
Homes Not Jails began in 1992 in the wave of homeless activist groups that began nationwide following the economic recession of the 1980s. In addition to traditional homeless advocacy, Homes Not Jails has used squattingSquatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
as a tactic since its first public takeover. The group began in fall of 1992 with the takeover of a building at 90 Golden Gate Avenue in the Tenderloin district. On Thanksgiving Day, shortly after this first occupation, the group held a rally and marched to another building at 250 Taylor street, and publicly occupied it. There were originally about 30 members. Homes Not Jails has had extensive media coverage of its advocacy in support of affordable housing, its covert housing of people in vacant buildings, and its protection of buildings slated for demolition.
In 2007 in California Homes Not Jails pushed for passage of a state bill, SB464, which would discourage housing speculation by requiring a five year ownership before property owners can evict tenants under the Ellis Act
Ellis Act
The Ellis Act is a provision in California Law, which provides landlords in California with a legal way to "go out of business" short of selling the property to another landlord...
and give all tenants a year to find new housing if a senior or disabled person resides in the building.
In 1999, Homes Not Jails tried to claim ownership of a vacant house at 715 Page St. in San Francisco. Homes Not Jails contended that squatters had occupied the building for five years and the organization paid more than $5,000 in back property taxes in order to claim adverse possession
Adverse possession
Adverse possession is a process by which premises can change ownership. It is a common law concept concerning the title to real property . By adverse possession, title to another's real property can be acquired without compensation, by holding the property in a manner that conflicts with the true...
of the building. Homes Not Jails was denied ownership, because it unable to prove continuous occupation for the previous five years.
San Francisco Supervisor Angela Alioto
Angela Alioto
Angela Alioto is an attorney, a politician, and a member of the Secular Franciscan order and Democratic Party. She is a member of one of the best known political families in San Francisco, and her family is generally associated with the liberal democratic side of the city's...
introduced legislation in 2004 sponsored by Homes Not Jails that would allow the city to seize abandoned buildings and give them to nonprofit housing groups; these could employ homeless people to repair and live in them.
January 25, 1997 Members of Homes Not Jails in Boston MA, occupied a long vacant building called "The Alexandria Hotel" a 110 year old building that was previously used as a bachelors boarding house. The locks had previously been replaced with members own locks and a march was planned. At one o'clock when the march arrived at the unoccupied building the Homes Not Jails members unlocked the gates and held a symbolic "open house" for the invited homeless. Police arrested and charged seven activists with trespassing and breaking and entering.
January 18, 2001 homeless advocates, including members of Homes Not Jails, D.C., the Homeless Association and other organizations hung from an empty HUD-owned home a banner that reads, "HOUSING FOR PEOPLE, NOT FOR PROFIT." Activists also carried cardboard coffins to the home, located at 3602 New Hampshire Ave. in Washington D.C., stacked them there, and hung a second banner that says, "OUR PEOPLE FREEZE OUTSIDE EMPTY HUD HOUSES".
On Saturday, April 7, 2007 at the 24th Street BART Station Homes Not Jails, with the San Francisco Tenants Union, the San Francisco Peoples’ Organization, the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club
Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Democratic Club
Based in San Francisco, California, the Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Democratic Club is a chapter of the Stonewall Democrats, named after LGBT politician and activist Harvey Milk. Believing that the existing Alice B...
, Religious Witness with Homeless People, St. Peter’s Housing Committee, some other organizations and approximately 150 housing activists, protested Ellis Act evictions with a march and building occupation in downtown San Francisco. Supporters attempted to supply the occupiers with food and water, but police confiscated the rope and bucket being used and detained any supporters attempting to supply the occupiers.
Sweat Equity
Sweat equity is the cornerstone of the Homes Not Jails philosophy. It is formulated to address the problem that most affordable housing is unaffordable for people with no income or people on General AssistanceGeneral Assistance
General Assistance is a term used in the United States to denote welfare programs that benefit adults without dependents as opposed to families with children, who receive assistance from the federal program formerly known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children, and, since 1996,...
, Supplemental Security Income
Supplemental Security Income
Supplemental Security Income is a United States government program that provides stipends to low-income people who are either aged , blind, or disabled. Although administered by the Social Security Administration, SSI is funded from the U.S. Treasury general funds, not the Social Security trust fund...
, or Aid to Families with Dependent Children
Aid to Families with Dependent Children
Aid to Families with Dependent Children was a federal assistance program in effect from 1935 to 1996, which was administered by the United States Department of Health and Human Services...
. Homes Not Jails proposes an alternative model for people who are destitute and need to do labor instead of pay rent. The use of sweat equity decreases the amount of government funding needed to make affordable units available, and for more complex building skills such as architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
or engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
Homes Not Jails has historically relied on volunteer work. The underlying principle is to have residents do the work on their own housing and greatly reduce the cost of running a large non-profit organization that would contract out or source volunteers to help in construction efforts.
Covert Squatting
Homes Not Jails relies on lists of addresses supplied by sympathizers and search teams. At least one search team a week has been organized since 1992. On any given search the teams open one to a half-dozen vacant buildings. From 1994 to 1999 over 250 search teams have opened between 700 and 800 buildings. Search teams carry bolt cutters and often replace a landlord's padlock with their own or leave windows open for the homeless who may attend their weekly public meetings.Public Building Occupations
- Thanksgiving, 1992: occupied 250 Taylor Street in San Francisco (the first public occupation).
- December, 1992: members reoccupied 250 Taylor Street, creating a standoff with police.
- June 14, 1993: squatters occupied and barricaded themselves inside a vacant federally owned building at 1211 Polk Street in San Francisco; after a negotiating team outside held talks with Federal officials, the building was eventually given to a nonprofit housing agency.
- Christmas 1993: San Francisco Homes Not Jails occupied 66 Berry St., a state-owned property.
- May 2, 1994: Homes Not Jails and the Northern California Homeless Network occupied empty residential buildings on San Francisco's Presidio Army Base.
- April 7, 2007: Homes Not Jails occupied a house in San Francisco's Mission District that had been vacant for four years. Faced with felony charges of conspiracy to commit trespass the occupiers left the same day.
- April 11, 2011: Homes Not Jails occupied a multi-unit building owner by Kaiser Permanente left vacant for two years resulting in nine arrests.
See also
- Food Not BombsFood Not BombsFood Not Bombs is a loose-knit group of independent collectives, serving free vegan and vegetarian food to others. Food Not Bombs' ideology is that myriad corporate and government priorities are skewed to allow hunger to persist in the midst of abundance...
- Take Back the LandTake Back the LandTake Back the Land is an American organisation based in Miami, Florida devoted to blocking evictions, and rehousing homeless people in foreclosed houses. Take Back the Land was formed in October 2006 to build the Umoja Village Shantytown on a plot of unoccupied land to protest gentrification and a...
- Umoja VillageUmoja VillageThe Umoja Village shantytown was founded on October 23, 2006, in the Liberty City section of Miami, Florida, in response to gentrification and a lack of low-income housing in Miami. The name Umoja is Swahili for "unity", hence "Unity Village"....
- Kensington Welfare Rights UnionKensington Welfare Rights UnionThe Kensington Welfare Rights Union is a progressive social justice, political action, and advocacy group of, by, and for the poor and homeless operating out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and led by Galen Tyler...
in Philadelphia - Mad HousersMad HousersMad Housers, Inc. is a non-profit corporation based in Atlanta, Georgia and engaged in charitable work, research and education. The Mad Housers are perhaps best known for a hands-on, pragmatic approach to providing shelter to homeless people, in particular through the design, construction and...
in Atlanta and Chicago - Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club
External links
- Wiegand E. (2004) Trespass at Will: Squatting as Direct Action, Human Right & Justified Theft (LiP Magazine)
- Homes Not Jails. San Francisco Tenants Union, San Francisco. HNJ! old site
- homes not jails homes not jails san francisco official site