[News] Liberty City Miami - Take Back the Land Update

Tue Oct 24 18:16:33 EDT 2006

From: Max Rameau <afrimax at gmail.com>
Date: Oct 24, 2006 7:09 AM
Subject: Take Back the Land Update
To: afrimax at gmail.com

Greetings:

We did it!

Yesterday, a group of organizations and 
individuals, led by the Center for Pan-African 
Development, successfully took over land in Liberty City.

Fed up with broken government promises and stolen 
money, activists and residents took over the 
vacant publicly owned land on 62nd St. and NW 
17th Ave. in the Liberty City section of Miami. 
Miami police tried to evict us, but, having done 
our research in advance, we had lawyers and the law on our side.

We fed over 50 people and housed about 20. Today 
and through the week, we will continue to build 
our city. Our objective is not just to make a 
statement, it is to directly provide housing to 
poor Black people, to do for our community what 
the government and market are unwilling and uncapable of doing.

Please show your support by coming to our shanty 
town any evening you can. We are also in need of 
donations: wood, building material, blankets, 
tarps, tents, food, money and your time. We must 
show that the concept of direct people control 
over land is an idea with support.

Also, review two media pieces from yesterday at:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/15833004.htm
http://cbs4.com/video/?id=24699@wfor.dayport.com

forward,

Max Rameau
Center for Pan-African Development

**********************************************

         Posted on Tue, Oct. 24, 2006

Housing activists set up camp in Liberty City
Protesters angry at a lack of affordable housing 
set up a tent camp on cityowned land in Liberty City.
BY DANI MCCLAIN
dmcclain at MiamiHerald.com

A group of activists pitched camp in the heart of 
Liberty City on Monday to protest what they 
called the failure of the city and Miami-Dade 
County to build affordable housing.

Carrying tents, tarps and banners that read, 
''Take back the Land!,'' the group said it was 
building a shantytown on a vacant, city-owned lot 
to house hundreds of the neighborhood's homeless.

''The government is an active part of the 
problem,'' said Max Rameau, spokesman for the 
Center for Pan-African Development, an activist 
organization. ``The city and the county have no 
interest in housing poor black people, so we will do it ourselves.''

About 40 people gathered at the corner of 
Northwest 62nd Street and 17th Avenue. As they 
pitched tents and served soup on the trash-strewn 
lot, passersby stopped to look.

Among them was 20-year-old Roderick Mitchell, a 
former resident of the Scott/Carver Homes. 
Mitchell said he and his sister have lived with 
relatives since their section of the huge housing complex closed in 2004.

Mitchell said he planned to join the group camping out Monday night.

''This statement can help,'' Mitchell said, 
gesturing at the activity around him.

But Rameau, one of the key organizers, said his 
intention is not simply to make a statement. The 
group, including members of Hope for the Homeless 
and Hopeless and the Fort Lauderdale chapter of 
Food Not Bombs, intends to provide shelter and food indefinitely, Rameau said.

The group did not notify the city of its intention to take over the lot.

Several city police cruisers -- including one 
carrying Neighborhood Enhancement Team 
administrator Von Carol Kinchens -- drove up 
about 30 minutes after the activists converged on the lot.

The officers warned the protesters they could face arrest but then left.

''As long as there's no criminal activity, we're 
just letting them vent out,'' said William Moreno, a department spokesman.

Rameau said the group is protected by a landmark 
legal case, Pottinger v. City of Miami, a 
class-action suit filed by the ACLU and settled in 1998.

The settlement prohibited Miami police from 
arresting homeless people engaged in 
''life-sustaining conduct'' -- such as sleeping 
or eating -- on public property when there is no shelter space available.

The people who set up camp on the lot should 
remain in the clear legally as long as they don't 
obstruct traffic or damage property, said Ray 
Taseff, an attorney affiliated with the Miami ACLU.

''I really can't see how the city can argue 
around it,'' Taseff said of the Pottinger 
settlement. ``The police did the right thing today.''

***********************************************
Forwarded by the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network
***********************************************

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20061024/929f29e1/attachment.htm>