by Calculated Risk on 4/10/2009 10:08:00 AM

Bando: Someone who lives in an abandoned home.

From the NY Times: More Squatters Are Calling Foreclosures Home

When the woman who calls herself Queen Omega moved into a three-bedroom house here last December, she introduced herself to the neighbors, signed contracts for electricity and water and ordered an Internet connection.

What she did not tell anyone was that she had no legal right to be in the home.
...
Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said about a dozen advocacy groups around the country were actively moving homeless people into vacant homes ...

So now we have organized bandos! And it sounds like the competition is fierce:

“At 10 o’clock in the morning, I went over to the house just to make sure everything was O.K., and squatters took over our squat. Then we went to another place nearby, and squatters were in that place also.”