The Birdhaus is back on our radar. I cringe to think about the outcome of this post, as I think back to the last time that we ever mentioned “The Bird House” on BRO. I’m not talking about this Birdhouse. I’m talking about a house on Bird Avenue that was once vacant and crime ridden before a group of young squatters moved in and took up residence. At the time that we wrote about this unusual collective of inhabitants, BRO commentors referred to them as “an environmentalist collective, squatters, anarchists, Freegans, hippies, freeloaders, sponges, lost souls…”
It was also around that time that the squatters took up permanent residence at the house, officially and legally with the City, through rather unconventional means. 92 Bird was apparently heading towards being demolished, which would have cost taxpayers upwards of $20K, according to Richard Kern who spoke with the new title bearer Tim Robson. Robson and the rest of the residents had a long road to haul, as the 3314 sq.’ house was in deplorable condition. At the time, the new homeowners stated that they would incrementally fix up The Bird House, using their internal resources the best they could. The entire ordeal pitted BRO readers and much of the surrounding neighborhood against one another, as some people said, “Good for you, go get ’em!” while others said, “Get the $%#& out of Buffalo!”
A couple of days ago, a friend of mine who is tight with the members of “The Birdhaus Collective” (my how times have changed!) reached out to me to inform BRO readers that the inhabitants were in the process of raising money for a new roof. My friend referred to the place as a “center of punk/traveler kid culture“, which pretty much sums up what many of their early defenders always thought of them:
Center: A cooperative environment
Punk: Anarchists
Traveler: Freewheeling
Culture: Artists, musicians, Bohemians
After hearing about the plight of the residents, I decided to take a look at the crowd funding campaign that they had established. That was the first time that I had seen (let alone thought about) the old Bird House in quite some time. Along with a photo of the house (seen here), a message was presented that read:
The Birdhaus is many things to a lot of different people. To some of the hundred or so actual residents of the space over the last 10 years it has been everything from a homestead, a social space, a co-op, a wildly ambitious project, a dream house, a punk house, a sanctuary, a squat, an art space, a venue, a Victorian era mansion and so much more. But also to us and to the hundreds of guests that have come through town or stayed with us in their time of need it has been a roof over their head. Well folks, the Birdhaus is in need of a new roof.
After having this conversation with dozens of folks, going in and out of deliberations with housing court, trying to patch the roof incrementally and making it worse and planning to do the whole roof ourselves “next spring,” we’ve decided to crowdsource this project. I am going to get a competitive priced roof and NOT take the lowest bidder. Fixing the roof has been a burden weighing on the house and holding us down, literally, while not keeping us dry for too many years. Putting a new roof on this space is going to open up a mansion of possibilities and with the evolution our skill sets and growth of our network, explode the possibilities of this place.
Bird UP to the skies and blanket the houses with our dust, shingle the masses. Sheath the brittle frame of the puny inhabitants of a cold earth. broke hungry and wet anything helps!
-The Birdhaus Collective
Since I have not considered the cooperative efforts of The Birdhaus in some time, I feel that the only thing to do is to appeal to the community to help these chaps out. They have come to the realization that they can’t fix the roof themselves, although they have tried. It sounds as if there is an urgent repair matter at hand. So far they have raised $1870 of the $10K that they need for the roof (see GOFundMe). Despite any misgivings about the inhabitants, for whatever reason, it would be nice to see a new roof on this hundred year old house. Hopefully, a new roof would rekindle efforts to get the exterior of the house tackled as well!