I've often joked that the 25 story half-built luxury tower on Ludlow Street will soon become a high-rise tent city.
Turns out that might not be far from the truth if this building in Venezuela is an indicator

A 45-Story Walkup Beckons the Desperate
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/world/americas/01venezuela.html

CARACAS, Venezuela — Architects still call the 45-story skyscraper the Tower of David, after David Brillembourg, the brash financier who built it in the 1990s. The helicopter landing pad on its roof remains intact, a reminder of the airborne limousines that were once supposed to drop bankers off for work.

The office tower, one of Latin America’s tallest skyscrapers, was meant to be an emblem of Venezuela’s entrepreneurial mettle. But that era is gone. Now, with more than 2,500 squatters making it their home, the building symbolizes something else entirely in this city’s center.

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And with all the financial and housing crisis issues here in NYC, you'd think that the city would help keep this low-income affordable-housing building from selling itself to a developer for yet more luxury condos. NOPE, think again.
http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/east-eighth-street-te...

On Feb. 25, 390 East Eighth Street, a dedicated low-income housing building, was sold to Tower Brokerage, an East Village real estate developer with plans to put in market-rate apartments.

The HDFC, the tenant-owned and operated corporation that owns the building, finally conceded to the sale seeing no way out from a financial debt that accumulated during the years the building was being run by a non-profit called Interfaith Adopt-a-Building.

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Today's photo:

Rock beats scissors, Vine beats fence