Resource: Property Rebels: Reclaiming Abandoned, Bank-Owned Homes for Community Uses

In urban cores, abandoned, bank-owned, foreclosed homes attract crime, drain value from neighboring properties, and deplete the resources of municipalities, creating economic black holes in communities. Groups of activists affiliated with the Occupy Our Homes movement have been working to undo the harm caused by these abandoned homes by placing otherwise homeless individuals in neglected bank-owned properties.

This Article argues that modifications to existing property law norms such as adverse possession can provide a legal framework through which abandoned homes might be put to community use, not necessarily to end homelessness which has roots, causes, and consequences beyond the scope of this Article-but instead to combat the harms blocks of abandoned, bank-owned homes cause communities and to re-engineer the relationships between banks and the communities in which such banks own property.