Urban Homesteading Movement

25/11/2023, Harlem, New York City, United States

The period surrounding New York City's 1975 fiscal crisis was marked by turmoil, with deindustrialization affecting major cities nationwide. Demographics shifted rapidly as high-income earners migrated to the suburbs, leaving the city grappling with increased tax foreclosures, unemployment, and the challenges of managing and operating buildings. Harlem, the Bronx, and the Lower East Side of New York City were particularly singled out for disinvestments, a strategy often termed planned abandonment.

As landlords failed to pay property taxes, many neglected buildings were transferred to the city’s ownership, with the tenants living in them. Despite city officials considering abandoned buildings a public nuisance, these structures offered a chance for many low-income New Yorkers to own homes and take control of their lives.

Urban homesteading, a citywide movement, emerged as people took charge of the built environment during a period of insufficient public action. Typically, these homesteaders were young individuals with incomes often below the poverty line.

Tenants began to maintain and renovate long-neglected buildings, with some homesteaders conducting impressive restoration projects, studying and repairing the historical features and decorations of the structures.

Homesteaders rallied behind the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB), established in 1973, which offered technical assistance, training, and tools to those working on their buildings. The organization played a crucial role in helping tenants secure loans and attain ownership of their apartments. Tenants formed resident owned co-ops and some homesteaders joined forces to acquire other abandoned houses from their neighborhoods.

While initially focusing on the right to affordable housing, the homesteading movement was able to help preserve some of the iconic characteristics of New York City’s built environment we still see today.

Image: UHAB’s poster from 1975 for “A Series of Forums About Self-Help Renovation of Abandoned Buildings”