Department of Housing and Urban Development does not seem to enforce codes...im not sure what cool with it means...it means something in Gothamist world!

is there a CWI ("cool with it") certificate on file somewhere?

on the HUD website i see nothing about living standards, code enforcement or hipster housing approval.

whats up with all this hipster BS.

hipsters keep trying to push the boundaries of whats legit, living on a boat, squating, lobster restaurant in an apt, live in non compliant living situations, deal and buy weed and coke, then blog, promote and give names and details in mainstream papers then wonder exactly why they got the attention of the authorities.

Did you even read the posting? The housing people were "cool with it", they essentially had permission.

housing people are not "cool" with it, its they way city agencies work based on complaints or directions from management.

i could come up with a million reasons why this is unsafe but im not worried about the safety of hipsters.

i couldnt find anything that said housing was cool with it.

The Gothamist post above, in the last paragraph, says that the Dept of Housing was "totally cool with the set up". I can only assume that the Gothamist folks know what they are talking about. The people with a problem were the fire department.

That said, this whole thing bothers me. It IS a bad, dangerous idea that appears to be poorly realized. AND I know other folks that tried to do something very similar, trying to get permission and had a smart consultant type person to help. They were told that they would be shut down.

I don't disagree with the idea that folks can live outside the main stream, and that if they do so in a way that's not legal then they shouldn't advertise it. But in this instance, it looks like they WERE okay with the housing people. It was a fire dept issue that was called in by one of the residents.

Hipster Hipster Hipster! I lover saying Hipster! Say it with me now - HIPSTER!!!!!!!!!!

How about I say this... diehipster.com

This whole situation bothers me for numerous reasons. I applaud any sort of "alternate living", but I am personally acquainted with a similar effort years ago, and they couldn't get the city govt to be "just cool with it".

Why all the FDNY hubub? If a hipster complains about leaking gas, simply light a match.

I was going to offer them one of my famous Russian cocktails

~* HIPSTER POST ON HIPSTER BLOG WITH HIPSTER COMMENTS *~

I GUESS YOU ARE SPEAKING FOR YOUR HIPSTER SELF

whooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Better yet, these people should be made into dog food.

Don't we have a whole upstate region for RVs and chickens and communal hippie living??? Do these assholes think they are 'fighting the man' or something? Go back to where you came from, obviously not NYC

But then they couldn't brag about their lifestyle. They'd just sit all depressed in their lawn chairs.

this is why we can't have nice things.

I know if I were to become homeless I would love to live in a RV or trailer and mind my own business as others should.

and not an Airstream either.

Ct? Westchester? These arent the "Gutter Punks" on St. Marks from the early 90's. These are the Trustafarians/Jahfakins coming out of the Midwest which would go to their desire to act poor. Silly trust fund kids. It is sad that they lost their homes. It is just hard to have sympathy for people who like to act poor, not shower, drink crap beer, and are so "ironic" that they are conformists.

Definitely an out of State (and non-NJ/CT) plate on that caravan in the picture.

Any word on what basis the FDNY asked them to vacate? I had assumed that this wasn't blatantly illegal based on the aforementioned Department of Housing and Urban Development being "totally cool" with it.

I hope some resolution is worked out - it's no one's place to dictate how others live provided basic safety is accounted for.