When the owner of an East Village condo died 12 years ago, two squatters moved in to his old pad, according to the owner's brother Wahid Sharaf, who is now suing the two for trashing the place. The condo is located at 184 East 2nd Street, reports the NY Post, and Sharaf says the illegal tenants did $70K worth of damage, causing him to sell it for way below the $900K market price. more ›

Oh sure, we hear all the time about drug dealers and faith healers squatting in dilapidated spaces and semi-abandoned buildings all over the city; but how often do you hear about a six-figure lawyer squatting in the Empire State Building? more ›

According to Jamaica residents, the house at 88-18 Burdette Place has about 15-20 homeless people living inside, and the trash is overwhelming the neighbors. The property is strewed with condoms, needles, diapers and other trash, and locals are worried the neighborhood may not be safe. Neighbor Amy Anderson told NY1, "My concern is when they set fires to keep warm, this is an attached house with families over there. It only takes one match." Residents say multiple contacts to city officials have done nothing; the Buildings Department says the abandoned house is currently owned by Wells Fargo, and upkeep is their responsibility. This is reportedly the fifth house in three years to have attracted homeless in the area. more ›

Earlier this week, a former squat, the Bullet Space at 292 East 3rd Street in the East Village, was turned over to its residents. Or, as the NY Post puts it, "Nearly 30 years after an eclectic group of poets, performers, anarchists and artists illegally occupied a burned-out East Village tenement, they've officially become a Manhattan co-op." more ›

Looks like the evicted squatters of 59 Orient Avenue are trying to reclaim their abandoned home. Caroline Stanley of Flavorwire, a neighbor of the Williamsburg house, tells us: "We heard people trying to get in last night around 12 and called the cops. The fence has been like that for two days now and when I called 311 to report it to the DOB they claimed that two other complaints had already been lodged." The house, of course, is famous for being Clementine's home in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and the street made more famous by its real-life resident Michel Gondry. more ›

Has the saga of the Eternal Sunshine crackhouse ended? The abandoned residence, used in the Michel Gondry film and located at 59 Orient Avenue in Williamsburg, had recently turned into a squatter's paradise--something neighbors were not too keen on. The Brooklyn Paper is reporting that the druggies and prostitutes residing in the house and lurking in neighbor's yards, have departed. The paper is patting themselves on the back, saying that once their "reporter questioned building owner Carlos Mery, he and his brother replaced the faulty plywood fence with a sturdier barrier, cleared out thick vegetation that gave trespassers cover for their illicit activities, better boarded up the first and second floors of the decaying mansion, and even fixed holes in the third floor and roof to keep vagrants out." One neighbor noted that once this took place, "the crackhouse problem was solved.” more ›

Michel Gondry may have just moved to Orient Avenue in Brooklyn, but certainly not to #59, which was briefly in the limelight when it appeared as Kate Winslet's apartment in his film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Four years after the cameras stopped rolling, The Brooklyn Paper takes a look at the house in its current state--and it's in no way ready for its next close-up.

Squatters, junkies, and prostitutes have turned the vacant building into a crackhouse, and residents of the tree-lined block say their safety is at risk. more ›