Picture the Homeless, a Bronx nonprofit that has received at least $240,000 in taxpayer money in the last five years, is giving a crash course on squatting — and city-owned buildings are a prime target.

Two weeks ago, board member Andres Perez held a teach-in on how to wrest “control” of vacant apartments. He called it “homesteading.”

“The best time to enter a building is in the late hours,” he advised a group of about 20, who gathered in front of the half-empty East New York housing complex Arlington Village.
VICTIMIZED: Squatters turned Arlington Village in Brooklyn into a prostitution den, according to a resident.
J.C. Rice
VICTIMIZED: Squatters turned Arlington Village in Brooklyn into a prostitution den, according to a resident.
LAW, SHUCKS: Andres Perez is part of a city-funded program teaching people to break into vacant properties.
Photos: J.C. Rice
LAW, SHUCKS: Andres Perez is part of a city-funded program teaching people to break into vacant properties.

“You make sure you have your proper tools. You remove the chains and padlock, and then you go in.”

He then led them through the next steps — including filling out a change-of-address form at the post office and setting up utilities. After that, “nine out of 10 times the courts will allow you to be able to have control of the property,” he said.