As night fell on the previously vacant home on Brooklyn's Vermont Street that was the target of a “liberation” by housing activists and Occupy Wall Street protesters earlier in the day, an illuminated Christmas tree stood in what is, at least for now, the small front yard of the Glasgow-Carrasquillo family's home.

It remains unclear whether authorities or the Bank of America, which owns the mortgage on the two-story brick house, intend to roust the longtime homeless family – Alfredo Carrasquillo, 27, Natasha Glasgow, 30, and children Alfredo, Jr., 5, and Tanisha, 9 – from their new abode. There were police parked on both ends of the block and a van in front of the family’s home, said Sean Barry of VOCAL-NY. Bank of America did not respond to an email seeking comment.

---

As the Carrasquillo-Glasgows got accustomed to their new surroundings, a group of the people responsible for putting a roof over their heads stood outside, discussing logistics and munching on food being distributed from a table on the sidewalk.

 

 

"What we're doing today … should encourage more and more people to ... fight for what their right is: Housing is a right,"” said Dorothy Amadi, a 63-year-old activist who was part of a squatting movement in Brooklyn in the 1980s. "We fought with the city and they gave this organization ... the buildings and we were able to renovate them and put people into apartments, and help put abandoned buildings back ... on the tax rolls, give the city some money to think about," she added with a laugh.

Some protesters had set up a mobile library across the street and were circulating a sign-up sheet for eviction defense -- in case authorities attempted to throw the family out of the foreclosed home.

“There definitely is going to be around-the-clock eviction defense,” said Barry, noting that protesters planned to work in shifts on an indefinite occupation. “Our understanding is that the police won’t take any action unless Bank of America asks them to do so.”

The NYPD did not respond to an email seeking comment. Officers at the scene declined to comment, as well as when contacted by phone.

Rob Robinson, of Take Back the Land, which helped plan the foray, said he hoped the action would encourage people to come out and share their stories of eviction, thereby helping others to overcome the shame and stigma of being foreclosed upon.

"You can only probably help somebody or change somebody's lives by sharing that story. Movements begin with the telling of untold stories," he said. "You need to tell your story, otherwise nobody knows."

Click here to read previous posts on the seizure of the Brooklyn home.

Click here to read complete coverage of the "Occupy" day of action.

The operation to occupy a vacant foreclosed home in Brooklyn on behalf of a homeless family from New York City appears to be a success. The front door of the two-story house on Vermont Street apparently was unlocked when the marchers arrived.

Alfredo Carrasquillo, the father of the homeless family, thanked the marchers for at least temporarily providing them with a home.

“I appreciate every single one of you,” he said. “This is just the beginning; there’s still a lot more work that needs to be done. But I hope that all of you will be here as that work continues.”

---

He then re-entered the home with his wife, Natasha, and two kids. Members of the media were not allowed inside.

 

 

 

Police who escorted the marchers through Brooklyn stopped when the marchers arrived at the home and remained a distance away as the celebration of the “liberation” of the foreclosed home began. A brass band played, people danced and food was passed around as the cleanup crew got down to business.

One of them, Jordan McCarthy, 22, from New Hampshire, walked by carrying two brooms.

"I’m really excited, really glad that I am able to help this family and that we’re fighting for equal housing rights," said McCarthy, who has been a member of the sanitation crew at the Occupy Wall Street protest. "It’s a really important issue.”

Click here to read all the posts on the Brooklyn seizure.

Click here for complete coverage of the "Occupy" day of action.

Marchers have arrived at the vacant foreclosed Brooklyn house they intend to “liberate” so a homeless New York City family can move in.

"This is no longer a house, this is a home,” the Rev. Patricia Malcolm said moments after the throng gathered in front of the home. “... Where the people are one, we can achieve anything and everything.”

---

A yellow sign reading “Foreclose on banks, not people” was hung from the upper floor before the marchers arrived. The front gate was festooned with bundles of balloons, rising above umbrellas carried by the marchers amid a hard rain.

 

 

 

Nonetheless, marchers have called on musicians to set up, saying that a "block party" will begin in 10 minutes.

Click here to read previous posts on this story.

Several hundred housing activists and “Occupy” protesters are marching toward the home in Brooklyn that they intend to seize on behalf of the homeless Glasgow family.

Police are escorting them toward their destination, and have so far taken no action to stop them.

---

Despite a steady drizzle falling on the marchers, the mood is festive. People are carrying balloons and playing drums. One fellow is blasting away on a vuvuzela horn. They are chanting things like “back to the neighborhood” and “block by block.” And many marchers are carrying wrapped “housewarming gifts,” such as chairs, stools and plants.

 They have stopped at other foreclosed homes in the area before heading toward the home they have targeted for the Glasgows.

At one, Yates McKee, a 32-year-old art historian carrying a potted palm tree, said he joined the march “to stand with communities that are resisting the foreclosures and evictions. That's really in a way the 'ground zero' of the financial crisis.”

“The plant is a metaphor for sustaining life,” he said. “That’s really what housing is about. It's something that ... helps to sustain the lives of families and that is a right that is being fundamentally violated.”

Click here to read previous posts on this story.

Click here to read complete coverage of Tuesday's day of action on foreclosure and housing.

Here’s a bit more on the Glasgows, the homeless New York City family being moved into a vacant foreclosed home in Brooklyn on Tuesday as part of a national protest by “Occupy” protesters and housing activists: 

Natasha Glasgow, 30, her former partner, Alfredo Carrasquillo, 27, and two children, Alfredo, Jr., 5, and Tanisha, 9, are among the more than 41,000 homeless adults and children who sleep in city shelters every night, according to Coalition for the Homeless.

The family has been living in shelters for more than a decade, a “very stressful” situation, according to Glasgow, who is jobless as well as homeless.

---

A program she was participating in that would have provided a rental subsidy to help them find permanent housing was defunded earlier this year, scuttling her efforts to get her family out of the shelter in New York’s Far Rockaway neighborhood, she said.

In preparation for their move into the foreclosed home targeted by the protesters, the family packed a few suitcases and bags.

As soon as they arrive, they will first meet neighbors and then begin the cleanup work with activists and “Occupy” protesters, Natasha said.

She said the children were excited but also anxious about making new friends. “(But) they know that mommy’s not going to put them into a predicament,” she said.

As for any potential problems with the authorities, she said: “I’m not really been worrying about them too much because I know that I am actually doing something that’s bettering myself, bettering my kids, bettering my whole life, so I’m not really worried about them too much. … I think that this is the best thing that’s going on for me.”

She never expected to become politicized and join such a protest action, but noted that it made her a “little angry” to know there were many homeless people living in shelters amid unused, empty housing.

“It’s good to release my story and have everybody talking, especially the people that’s going through the same thing I’m going through. …  I can hopefully make a change for everybody,” she said.

Click here to read a previous post about the effort to place the Glasgow-Carrasquillos into the foreclosed home.

Complete coverage of Tuesday 'Occupy' actions

A New York family with two children that has been living on and off in shelters for more than a decade will move into a new home on Tuesday, say housing activists and ‘Occupy’ protesters who intend to force their way into a foreclosed house in Brooklyn later in the day.

"We are going to liberate the house,” said Sean Barry, of VOCAL-NY, which has been working to prevent homelessness for 10,000 low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS and their families. "We want to make a public stance … for people to take sides."

The home that protesters aim to give to the Glasgow family -- which is not affected by HIV/AIDS – is in Brooklyn's East New York neighborhood, which has foreclosure and underwater rates that are nearly three times greater than that of New York state, Barry said, citing data from the housing and property database ListSource. 

---

The move-in is part of a national day of action coordinated by the 'Occupy' movement and housing activists in some 25 cities and towns, such as Petaluma, Calif., Southgate, Mich., Atlanta and Denver.

Activists and protesters plan to march to the Brooklyn home, where they will hold a housewarming party for them -- mother Natasha, 30, father Alfredo Carrasquillo, 27, and children Alfredo, Jr., 5, and Tanisha, 9 -- and then begin renovations. Carrasquillo is a community organizer at VOCAL-NY.

Rob Robinson of Take Back the Land, a national network of organizations focused on housing rights and securing community control over land, said the protesters plan to resist any efforts by authorities to remove the family from the home in a low-income neighborhood that's home to mostly African-Americans and Latinos.

"I am going to put up a real defense," said Robinson, who will serve as the police negotiator. "Until a judge tells us we have to leave, we're not leaving that house, so the family is in that house to stay. We're not ... disruptive, we do nonviolent civil disobedience. We call it positive action."

The 'Occupy' movement served as an inspiration for housing activists, who have been trying to help homeowners facing foreclosure keep their residences.

"Like September 17, when Occupy Wall Street started, people looked at it and there was this real question, 'Is this going to last? how is it going to grow?' and one of the reasons it grew is that as people stayed down at Zuccotti Park ... other people were inspired to take action," said Matt Browner Hamlin, an activist with occupyourhomes.org. "This is not something (where) ... we want a family to have a home for a day, we want them to have that home for a lifetime."

And for 'Occupy,' the initiative gives them a new focus after the dismantling of many of their encampments nationwide.

"It’s part of a national day of action that we hope will kick off a wave of defenses and home reoccupations,” Max Berger, 26, told the Occupy Wall Street General Assembly late last week while requesting $6,400 in funding to buy tools for the project. "This is not just about one event; this is a huge frontier for us. We can do these kinds of actions all the time, and we should. And it doesn’t have to be just us. We got to do this one right so we can inspire people to do it theirselves.”

Click here for all the posts on this developing story.