Activist Max Rameau, with the Center for Pan African Development, heads the project, �Take Back The Land.� Photos: Shernett Muhammad

Activists Max Rameau, of the “Center For Pan African Development,” and Amanda Seaton have found a slew of broken promises, lies and injustice by government officials launched year after year against the poor and homeless. Sick and tired of the government’s default in addressing the need of the poor and the homeless they decide to take action.

Mr. Rameau and a group of activists, volunteers and homeless individuals staked claim on a vacant lot where the homes of low-income families once stood. It was an apartment complex consisting of about 60 units. They moved onto the open lot in the Liberty City area and began to set up tents and wooden shacks known as a shanty houses.

Thirty minutes after their arrival, five police cars pulled up. Mr. Rameau says the officers were “angry” and “ready to lock us all up.”

“Fortunately, we had done our research before coming here,” he continued. With the help of several attorneys, they affirmed that they had the right interpretation of the law.

Mr. Rameau recalled how he explained to the police that had a right to be on the lot under the Pottinger Settlement and attempted to hand them the document. Eventually, the attorneys for the activists spoke with the city attorney and the police officers realized that the activists had the right to be there.

Mr. Rameau described the deplorable conditions in which residents were living a few years prior. “If you were to put a dog here, the police would have arrested you for mistreating the dog.” He argued.

Aaron Halloway (far right) is the cook for the homeless and volunteers at the site. Two men in foreground sit in front of a �rocket stove��made of bricks, cement blocks and pieces of wood�with a pot of soup on the fire.

“The building should not have gotten that way,” Mr. Rameau maintained. “It should have been inspected yearly.”

According to Mr. Rameau, the city purchased the property for $900,000 in 1998, in a move that he contended “rewarded the slumlord.”

The housing crisis and homeless numbers continued to increase and was further exacerbated by news reports of county and city government officials stealing tens of millions of dollars earmarked for poor communities.

“All they do is lie to us,” charged Mr. Rameau. “Instead of the government making things better as it relates to the crisis, they were making the crisis worse. Therefore, we could not depend on them to help us in alleviating the crisis.”

In response to the growing crisis, a volunteer coalition of organizations, professionals and political affiliates was formed. Their agenda: To take back the land.

“Now, we are doing for our people what the government has continually failed to do for its own citizens provide basic adequate housing,” he stated.

In 1998, a landmark case was settled in Miami under a statute known as “The Pottinger Settlement.” Mr. Rameau explained, “The city of Miami has a policy of arresting homeless people for committing any kind of misdemeanor that could be associated with being homeless. However, the Pottinger Settlement basically said it is not illegal to be homeless and listed a number of things that homeless people can do, which are technically illegal, but they cannot be arrested for them.”

Noted as “life-sustaining conduct” essential to life, the list of activities include sleeping in a public place, going to the bathroom or bathing in a public place, building fires to make food or keep warm and building temporary structures to protect from the elements.

The coalition is focused on helping the poor retain control of the integrity of our community strictly in terms of public policy.

Among the groups that helped lay the plans for the groundwork were anarchists from Lake Worth and Broward. Known as ecologically and environmentally conscious people, they are best known for coordinating anti-globalization demonstrations.

Two shanty houses in the process of being built side-by-side with plywood secured with tarp and other materials. Graffiti reads, �Food not bombs.�

“Our commissioners, counsel members, churches, clergy and leaders should all be involved in this, because this is about taking control of our communities,” he opined. “I have to wonder sometimes where we would be now, if we had followed in the footsteps of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan after the Million Man March!”

Shanty towns are built in every country in the world except the United States, Mr. Rameau pointed out, calling it “shameful” that poor U.S. citizens have to resort to living in such houses, which are not up to code and built temporarily on land that the people do not own.

He also stressed the importance of Black people moving toward owning and controlling the land in their community, forthrightly rejecting dependency on the government.

“We don’t want them to give us money and we don’t want them to promise us anything,” he said. “We can do much better with our little money that we put together from our donations than we can with them stealing tens of millions of dollars. We house and feed people every night; they come and go as they please. We know from experience that they don’t treat people with dignity at the shelters. But here, we treat them with dignity. Neighborhood children call this place ‘happy town.’

“For decades, our people spoke of taking control of our land in an abstract sense. Here we are providing a concrete model by which you can take control of land and do something good with it,” he concluded. “We are using the law to our advantage.”

(For more information, visit takebacktheland.blogspot.com to view pictures, read media reports and more.)