A Lost Squatter Paradise (18 Photos)

In the early 1990s, emerging artist Ash Thayer was forced out of her Brooklyn apartment and found refuge in a Lower East Side squat. Unlike the journalists and photographers routinely turned away from these reclaimed buildings, Ash managed to earn the trust of the residents at See Skwat. Her photos were later published in her book, Kill City. Here is a look back at everyday life among New York City’s squatters at the end of the last century.





After finding herself homeless in Brooklyn in 1992, 19-year-old Ash Thayer quickly found a new home alongside a community of squatters occupying an abandoned building in the East Village. She was an aspiring photographer and new to squatting, but she soon realized the lifestyle suited her.

Over the next seven years, Ash moved from one abandoned building to another. To city officials, squatters were trespassers unlawfully occupying derelict properties that officially belonged to the city. The 5th Street Squat was one such informal community that eventually came to an end.



1. Jill and KD hanging out at the 5th Street Squat in Manhattan. Squatters restored the roof of this abandoned building themselves.





2. A young woman known to friends as Celebrity, pictured with her child in a 7th Street squat apartment, 1997.



3. The kitchen at the 5th Street Squat in 1995.



4. Unwinding inside the See Skwat building.



5. Another resident of the 5th Street Squat: a dog named Pali, 1994.



6. A nursery room in Serenity House, 1998.



7. The Dregs performing at ABC No Rio, an arts and activist collective in the Lower East Side, 1998.



8. Before plumbing was installed at the 5th Street Squat, residents mostly peed in bottles.



9. Free-spirited creativity was second nature inside the squats.



10. Squatters often renovated their new homes using secondhand tools and repurposed materials.



11. Good times.



12. Serenity House residents repairing a staircase in 1997.



13. Although about a dozen squats were legalized in 2002, most didn't survive that long.



14. The view from a Serenity House window, 1997.



15. A musical interlude.



16. The 5th Street Squat in 1995. Windows were often left open to make moving between apartments easier.



17. Smoke break.