The Story from American Public Media

A New Life in a Foreclosed Home

Thursday, March 20 2008 by | Send to a friend

A New Life in a Foreclosed Home

Rmega Tsafari - larger >> (photo by Noelle Theard)

Foreclosures nationwide have led another trend: squatting. Empty homes are increasingly occupied by people who don't own them.

Rmega Tafari and her family were homeless. Then they found a foreclosed home - an old crack house. They cleaned it up, and made a deal with a neighbor for water and electricity. Even the bank allowed them to stay, but only temporarily. It all ends on Monday -  the Tafari family has been asked to leave. Rmega talks to Dick Gordon about the pressures that led her to squatting, and the uncertain future that she and her family now face.

• Rmega captured these photos inside the vacant foreclosed house they're calling home.
  
• Learn more about Take Back the Land, an organization that identifies vacant, foreclosed homes for the homeless.

Music heard in this story: "That Hump" by Erykah Badu for the album Amerykah Pt. 1 (4th World War)

The Shaping of a Career

Sid Luck - larger >>

Sid Luck taught high school chemistry for 16 years. Then he decided to make a career switch: he became a full time potter. Sid's father told him he was crazy to try to make a living by throwing plates and jugs.

But Sid comes from a long line of farmers who made pottery on the side. When Sid was 10, his father told him to "stop messing around the swimming hole" and learn the family tradition. Sid was hooked from the start.

Sid talks with Dick about how he made the family tradition work for him, and why taking the risk was worth it.

This interview was made possible with a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council.

• See some of Sid's pottery