"But many New Yorkers were surprised this summer when, under a controversial new city policy, a group of squatters took legal possession of several buildings in the high-rent Manhattan neighborhood where they had been living illegally for years, decades in some cases.
In August, the city sold 11 buildings on the Lower East Side for $1 each to a nonprofit agency, which will hand them over to the 236 squatters, including 36 children, who live in them. "

CNN.com - For $1, squatters become building owners in NYC - Oct. 14, 2002