In times of economic recession, homelessness becomes a more pressing issue in cities everywhere. Shelter accommodation is often at a premium and the urban homeless have become adept at repurposing empty and abandoned architecture within the urban environment. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, for example, it was estimated that upwards of a hundred people had been living in the abandoned subway tunnels beneath New York City.
Marc Singer’s 2000 documentary, Dark Days, portrays a group of individuals who lived in the Freedom Tunnel, a 50 block-long stretch of defunct train tunnels beneath Riverside Park. Each resident built their own semi-permanent structures: shanties made of found wood, sometimes equipped with pirated electricity, makeshift kitchens, and even play areas for their pets.
In these spaces, they cooked meals, brushed their teeth, and went above ground for the day’s work, usually collecting, recycling, or finding items to sell. This troglodyte shantytown functioned as a little community. Everyone knew their neighbors, visiting each other to compare “houses,” and staying with each other in times of need. Among them were runaways, people who had lost their families and homes, addicts, and former addicts counseling each other and working to eliminate drug use in the area.
The documentary follows the 1996 eviction when Amtrak reactivated train service through the tunnel. Singer, along with photographer Margaret Morton and anthropologist Teun Voeten, worked with the Coalition for the Homeless to help secure housing for the tunnel residents. During this time, the residents fought to remain in the tunnel rather than transfer to a shelter, expressing concerns for violence and drug use on the surface. Due to increased security, there are very few, if any, believed to be living in the tunnels today – but no one seems to know for sure. With over 51,000 people in New York City still living in homeless shelters each night, and the failure of the shelter system to provide an adequate safe environment for them all, many continue to find new solutions by repurposing architecture in order to find a place to return to and call “home.”
(Susie Lee)
PRODUCT GROUP
MANUFACTURER
New and existing Tumblr users can connect with uncube and share our visual diary.
Uncube is brandnew and wants to look good.
For best performance please update your browser.
Mozilla Firefox,
Internet Explorer 10 (or higher),
Safari,
Chrome,
Opera