Collective seeks to occupy vacant buildings for temporary housing

SEATTLE — A collective called Common Cents put a flag on top of the vacant Seattle Times building and posted a Craigslist ad calling for the occupation of vacant buildings in Seattle.

Cory Potts, who is with Common Cents, said he has participated in legal takeovers like this in Brussels before. Potts said the idea is to negotiate the temporary use of a vacant building before its demolition date, giving homeless and low-income people a roof over their heads.

"It's not going to fix homelessness, but it's just offering an alternative," Potts said.

Potts previously took part in a legal takeover of an empty building in Brussels, and he said the mix of people there paid to stay and governed themselves. The group entered into an agreement with the property owner for terms and length of stay.

He said he doesn’t necessarily support the unorganized takeover of a building, but he does feel there could be many uses for currently vacant space.

While some vacant buildings might be good for artists or nonprofits to use, he is personally invested in getting people off the streets.

Potts compares the idea to current tent cities.

“We would have the same model, which is a temporary occupation,” he said.

Potts referenced Mary’s Place, a nonprofit shelter that has an agreement with the city of Seattle to use a vacant city building that will become a Seattle police precinct in a couple of years.

In that case, there is a formal agreement between the two parties.

When asked whether Potts is concerned about the current illegal squatting happening in the Times building and other places, he said, “No, it’s not a concern to me. Those people need housing. Those buildings are vacant. To me, it’s absurd that we would allow people to continue living on the street while there are vacant buildings in the city.”

KIRO 7 visited the abandoned Times building Wednesday and found a new hole in the side where, a security guard said, people broke in again that morning.

Wednesday afternoon, KIRO 7 observed the Seattle Fire Department on the scene with a ladder truck. A Seattle Firerepresentative said neighbors had called about what looked like vapors coming from the building. Firefighters found that a sprinkler head was broken -- something that would rarely happen spontaneously.
Ginger Morgan, who happened to be working near the Times building, said being in a vacant space can be dangerous.

Morgan used to work in construction. Referring to the people inside the Times building, she said, “Half the time, they’re going in and stealing all the wire; all the recyclable items.”

She said people hired to tear down the buildings often make their money on those items.

The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection told KIRO 7 that building owners have 72 hours to secure their properties after squatters break in.

If that doesn’t happen, the city does it for the owner and bills them. The property is then added to the Vacant Building Monitoring Program list, which currently consists of about 80 properties that are monitored quarterly.

Cox Media Group