Last week, New Times
brought you the story of Cassy the squatter, the homeless Haitian mother who
moved into a blue, bank-owned foreclosed house in
with her young daughter. Her tale included a tribe of activists, a couple
broken laws, and a mortgage lender none the wiser.
Cassy, whose real name is Marie Nadine Pierre, told her story to South Florida's Channel 10 news last night. Reporter Neki Mohan summed it up this way: "To many homeless advocates, it's a simple supply and demand issue. So many empty homes, so many people who need them." Anchors also prefaced the segment by noting that, yes, what she's doing is illegal. And, of course, they threw in the obligatory difficult-economic-times angle.After the New Times article, Take Back the Land Director Max Rameau decided to be "completely open," and disclose the home location to the public and the real name of "Cassy."
At the end of the clip, a female anchor speculates about Pierre's fate. "Now that it's gotten publicity," she says, "we'll really see."
Check out the video here.
--Natalie O'Neill
