Living Off The Urban Land

The New York Times magazine profiles squatters and freegans who have taken advantage of the many housing foreclosures in Buffalo, NY and how they’ve earned their neighbors’, and the law’s, respect. “On my first visit,” says Jake Halpern, “I found several groups of young people busy at work — painting the interior, mending a fence and building an outdoor stone patio. The house is, in some ways, a giant learning lab where residents teach one another the basics of carpentry, plumbing and electrical work. Many embrace this do-it-yourself mentality with an almost evangelical fervor.”