occupy our homes

Brooklyn Home Returned to Owner After Occupy Squatters Arrested and Removed

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 06: Community activists and over two hundred members of the Occupy Wall Street movement march in the impoverished community of East New York to draw attention to foreclosed homes in the community on December 6, 2011 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The group said they would occupy a home and would hand the property over to a homeless family. In what organizers are describing as a
Occupy Our Homes targets East New York in early December. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Photo: Spencer Platt/2011 Getty Images

Several months ago, a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters, freshly evicted from Zuccotti Park, installed themselves in a foreclosed East New York home and promised to renovate it for a homeless family in need. Noble intentions, to be sure. But there was a little wrinkle: The home’s owner was a single father of two, who was negotiating with Bank of America at the time to save his mortgage. Occupy leaders said 28-year-old Wise Ahadzi didn’t qualify for the group’s assistance because he and his daughters weren’t officially homeless — despite having been expelled from their home by a massive bank. But after police arrested six Occupy squatters earlier this month over a smashed window, Ahdazi and his family may finally be homebound. The place is a mess, though, with damages of at least $12,000 to the property. 

Occupy Squatters Removed From Brooklyn Home