Venezuelan Homeless Live in Unfinished 45-Story Skyscraper with Few Walls and no Elevator.

[onehandle]

Squatters in Venezuela have found a home in an unfinished 45-story skyscraper in Venezuela. They call their home the "Tower of David", after the financier who tried to build it in the '90s. People live up to the 28th floor in the elevator-less building and have jury-rigged electricity and water to every inhabited floor. Some of the squatters even have DirecTV satellite dishes set up.

It's amazing, given that many floors on the buildings don't have guardrails, windows or even walls. But the people have managed to live given their conditions. There's a bodega on nearly every floor, guards with walkie talkies protect the building's entrances and even a pseudo-arcade for the children to play.

Outsiders see the squatters and think they're invading the building and ruining the city. The squatters see themselves as slighted by a failed government. But most Venezuelans see the Tower of David as a reminder of how far Venezuela has fallen.

http://ca.gizmodo.com/5777532/squatters-live-in-a-45+story-skyscraper-with-no-elevator-they-have-directv-though

[Cleita]

1. It's better than our homeless have. n/t

[onehandle]

5. .

[socialist_n_TN]

20. My first thought also......

Although, I've wondered why this hasn't happened more often here. Maybe the police presence is more massive in the US than in Venezuela.

[Cleita]

21. Not really. I lived in South America and they

have more of a live and let live attitude when it comes to the poor. The authorities know cardboard and corrugated iron shacks aren't according to building code and the public land they are placed on is done probably illegal, but they also know that this is all the poor have so they don't herd them off because they are an eyesore and squatting because they have no place else to go. We have a hotel in my area that ran out of money and it's pretty much finished. It could house homeless but it remains empty and locked because of bureaucratic red tape. Yet I see homeless people walk by it with their shopping carts and backpacks all the time.

[martymar64]

2. US Homeless live under freeway overpasses and in doorways. Your point?

[ReggieVeggie]

3. At least they have a place

"But the people have managed to live given their conditions." Conditions? Does he mean a place to sleep with a roof over their heads?

[d_b]

4. I'll know America has made it

when squatters take over the trump towers

[bobbolink]

19. And have guards keeping us safe!

Excellent point!

And I think that day is coming. The anger is building, and like the Egyptians, the fear is no longer the same obstacle it was.

[sabrina 1]

6. Homeless U.S. veterans of Iraq, Vietnam and AFghanistan

make up almost half of America's homeless. They do not have any shelter and if they were to try to occupy a building like that or even sleep on the steps of a building, as happened in NYC under Giuliani, they would be rounded up and disappeared, either into jail, or run out of town.

What is the Obama Government doing about that? We all know, thanks to these regular reminders of what the Venezuelan Govt. is repsonsible for, that the President is directly responsible for the homeless problems in this country. So, again, what is the, presumably failed Obama government doing about it here?

Bad as the homeless problem is in other countries, I fail to see how any American can have the gall or the time to spend worrying about that when they do nothing about our own, horrendous and ignored homeless problems right here.

Otoh, these kinds of propagandistic articles which appear on a regular basis even on democratic boards now, are a direct result of the well funded effort to discredit a country that will not hand over its resources to Global Profiteers.

The U.S. as we have found out, would never fund such negative articles about someone like our wealthy, oil-rich ally Qaddafi would they?

No, in fact, we have discovered that U.S. PR firms were hired to improve the image of that brutal dictator.

It is all so transparent now, no wonder Hillary is demanding better 'propaganda' for the U.S. because stuff like this has failed miserable since other real news organizations are available to actually get balanced news on these countries from.

[Webster Green]

7. +1,000,000

Exactly!

OP Fail!

[RZM]

16. I find that statistic quite dubious

'Almost half' of homeless are veterans of these three wars? That sounds pretty fishy. No doubt there are plenty of homeless who have spent some time in the military, but half being war veterans? I doubt it.

[sabrina 1]

17. You are correct. The official statistics say that

approximately 23% of America's homeless are veterans. Despite making up only about 11%-12% of the population, they make up a disproportionate number of the homeless.

Here are some sad facts about homeless veterans:

Homeless Veterans Facts

Who are homeless veterans?

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) states the nation’s homeless veterans are predominantly male, with roughly five percent being female. The majority of them are single; come from urban areas; and suffer from mental illness, alcohol and/or substance abuse, or co-occurring disorders. About one-third of the adult homeless population are veterans.

America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, the Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iraq (OEF/OIF), and the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America. Nearly half of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam era. Two-thirds served our country for at least three years, and one-third were stationed in a war zone.

Roughly 56 percent of all homeless veterans are African American or Hispanic, despite only accounting for 12.8 percent and 15.4 percent of the U.S. population respectively.

About 1.5 million other veterans, meanwhile, are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.

How many homeless veterans are there?

Although flawless counts are impossible to come by – the transient nature of homeless populations presents a major difficulty – VA estimates that 107,000 veterans are homeless on any given night. Over the course of a year, approximately twice that many experience homelessness. Only eight percent of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly one-fifth of the homeless population are veterans.

Support the troops! Where are Faux and Limbaugh when they are needed? All those yellow ribbons and flags. Someone made a fortune on that paraphenalia, but it wasn't the troops.

Still, we have time to worry about Ven. problems. I suggest we focus on our own problems and leave other nations to worry about theirs. We look so hypocritical when we do this as has been pointed out very effectively by Hugo Chavez each time it happens that one of our propagandists decides to ignore our own problems and writes a useless article like this.

[FLPanhandle]

8. I know this topic isn't about the US

So sorry for going a little astray here, but I always thought the US should buy up some of the unsold/uncompleted condos from the housing boom and converted them into housing units.

On the Venezuela topic, from the article some of these people have jobs but can't find housing due to "Private construction of housing here has virtually ground to a halt because of fears of government expropriation." & "Once one of Latin America’s most developed cities, Caracas now grapples with an acute housing shortage of about 400,000 units". The root cause of homelessness if different there it appears.

[bobbolink]

36. All the US has to do is restore the cuts to low-income housing that RAYGUN made,

which caused the homelessness epidemic.

Yet, Obama & Co is making MORE cuts to low-income housing.

I guess Obama loves homeless people so much that he wants to create more of them.

[MineralMan]

9. It's worth reading the whole NYT article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/world/americas/01venezuela.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1299438116-/%20ofJdrnaPZtEJtbqsW86w

What strikes me here is the open tolerance of this squatting. Such would not occur in the US, I'm sure, although we have our own squatters in buildings. Since there are no funds anywhere to develop this unfinished building, the current residents are tolerated there. It's a very interesting solution for the people who have moved into it.

In the NYT story, one of the interviewees who lives in the building works for a bank.

A fascinating into an impromptu solution for a shortage of housing.

[MineralMan]

10. Here's a very interesting Wikipedia article about an

organization in New York that actually bought 11 buildings that had been squats from the city, rehabbed them, then sold the individual apartments to the squatters for $250. This happened in 2002. It appears to be a success story for squatting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_Homesteading_Assistance_Board

Worth a read, I think. Could be a model.

[joshcryer]

22. Good stuff.

[FLPanhandle]

13. That's what's different about some their homelessness.

They aren't all unemployed, drug addicts, mentally ill. Many have decent jobs, but there are no places to live due to lack of building investments.

[MineralMan]

15. That's true. Looks like some have found a temporary solution.

The conditions are very different there, it seems.

[Avant Guardian]

11. My wife and I were in Sao Paulo Brasil a month ago

There are abandoned skyscrapers in the old downtown that are controlled by crackheads. You can tell the abandoned ones because they have graffiti going all the way up the sides to the top. At dusk the crackheads stream out of their skyscrapers and rove downtown in packs. At night, downtown Sao Paulo is called 'cracklandia' or 'crackland.'

Mad Max world

[EFerrari]

12. Another timeless piece by that journalistic master, SIMON ROMERO.

lol

[sabrina 1]

18. Amazing isn't it how he never reports anything worthwhile, but

like Fox, (is he on Fox btw, he would be perfect for that faux news agency. I don't watch it so wouldn't know} ignores real news and so transparently digs for anything he can find that might make the Venezuelan Govt. look bad.

I'd like to ask him this question. If the Venezuelan president is responsible for Venezuela's homeless, is the U.S. president responsible for the U.S. homeless?

[joshcryer]

24. People interest stories are good. Fox News tends to avoid those.

Especially when it comes to the plight of the homeless.

[EFerrari]

30. He's a joke. His Venezuela pieces are one, long, audition for Faux.

:)

[joshcryer]

23. Did you watch the video? I find it amazing how people have adapted.

They have little stores on every floor and guards at the first floor to make sure violent gangs don't try to take over. It's quite a touching story even if you are full of hate for anything that isn't pro-Chavez.

[Jkid]

14. If the Veneuzelan government is smart, they should finish any buildings...

That had been squatted by the people. As long as they're law-abiding, they should be no problem.

[JVS]

25. This tells me that Venezuela needs more extreme measures to redistribute wealth.

[FLPanhandle]

26. Their measures have effectively killed all private housing development

Even people with jobs can't find a place to live.

They need to offer some protection for capital investment in housing without fear of government takeover.

[JVS]

27. They could just take the capital and invest it themselves.

Cut out the middleman, it's more efficient.

[FLPanhandle]

28. Oh, so pure communism?

State owned everything and state invested everything. That hardly worked well or efficiently anywhere.

[joshcryer]

33. Nah

[joshcryer]

32. There's not enough capital to do that if they tried.

Look up gross capital formation.

[EFerrari]

31. Let's see some credible links that show capital investment is gone.

It sure is here in Silicon Valley.

But please, show your sources for this claim of yours that capital investment in housing has been "killed" in Venezuela.

Thanks in advance. :)

[FLPanhandle]

34. Just reading and responding to the article...

"Private construction of housing here has virtually ground to a halt because of fears of government expropriation."

You may consider the source not to be credible, but I doubt I'd invest money in any Venezuelan business venture right now.

[sabrina 1]

35. I would invest in Venezuelan business ventures.

The Western powers are trying to undermine this democracy by spreading this kind of garbage, the author of this article being a known propagandist he left out the fact that while the U.S. bites off its nose to spite its face, throwing a hissy fit because Ven. won't give them their 'pony', Russia and China ARE quietly investing in Venezuela among others.

This is why people should make sure that the sources they are using are credible. Lying by omission is still lying.

[joshcryer]

37. That doesn't explain the decline in Venezuelan housing.

What explanation do you have?

[EFerrari]

38. That's what I thought.

[joshcryer]

39. Do you have an alternate explaination?

That's what I thought.

[sabrina 1]

29. I agree, they have been hampered by trying to be fair to everyone

which is admirable and they do pay when they use the 'Eminent Domain' ruling to appropriate land, as is done in every country.

Just last month they passed a law that should help address their already ambitious program of building homes that are affordable for the poor and working class.

Interesting that this OP did not say anything about the many successes Venezuela has had over the past decade.

Nor did the OP's article point out that Venezuela has had a serious homeless problem for over 100 years and that Chavez has been very actively involved in trying to reduce homelessness in his country.

The Global recession has affected Venezuela as it has every country in the world because of the corruption of Big Corps especially in the real estate area. But if your were to read only this propagandists articles, you would swear that ONLY Venezuela has these problems.

He is a completely discredited 'journalist' at this point. As soon as I see his byline, I know what to expect.

[CommonSensePLZ]

40. All American skyscrapers are reserved only for the super-rich

Sounds like they're at least trying to do something about their homeless issue, even if there's problems. :\