Islington Tribune Article by Phoenix 11th Sept 2012

FORUM: Dark days for democracy with this anti squat law that will hit the homeless hard
PETE PHOENIX

Islington squatter Pete Phoenix

Published: 11 September, 2012
by PETE PHOENIX

PEOPLE out there are scared. The doors have already begun to splinter in dawn raids on the most vulnerable people in our society.

For many hundreds of years governments have tried to whittle away our rights to shelter, a long tradition in this country.

A recent government report said they were prepared to arrest up to 4,200 people per year for the crime of sheltering in an empty building.

A creeping fascism from the rounding up of the homeless in the UK to the crushing of six Roma camps in France applauded by the Daily Mail.

Surely common-sense thinking says get the million empty buildings into use and create employment on the way?

The government consultation was a complete undemocratic sham. Ninety-six per cent of replies said: “No. Do not criminalise the homeless and Squatting.” This included the Police Association, lawyers groups, judges, homeless charities and housing groups.

Many were outraged over the lack of democracy, when the government decided to ignore this and press ahead, criminalising trespass in residential buildings by adding a small clause (section 144) onto the Legal Aid Sentencing Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO)

It follows a year of propaganda from right-wing newspapers painting squatters as “home wreckers” rather than home repairers and renovators.

Stories of tenants who had outstayed their welcome, who were called squatters, “Gangs of roving gypsy eastern European squatter hordes”, in order to justify unspeakable crimes many regimes vilify and scapegoat minorities.

But why scapegoat the homeless and squatters the most disadvantaged in our society? In the middle of a housing crisis?

You can only squat an empty abandoned building – there are already laws to stop someone squatting an inhabited home.

The Displaced Residential Occupy (DRO) law 1977 already exists.

Tales of people going down the shops or on holiday who have their home squatted were lies. If it did happen it could have been dealt with swiftly by police under current laws.

I write as someone who has set up community centres in empty buildings for more than 20 years.

The disused St George’s Theatre, at Tufnell Park, is now lost to the community. But we opened it as a community space open to all for 13 months. It was described as the best arts space in Islington.

At the Save Our Squatting event last year we agreed to move out of an old council office in Tufnell Park Road a month or so after we mounted the exhibition. We were then given a part of the National Youth Theatre in Holloway Road and in return we agreed to move out of that building. We were assured it was to be demolished within weeks. The building still lies empty more than a year and a half later.

• Squatting is still legal in non-residential spaces. For more information see the Advisory Service for Squatters ASS. www.squatter.org.uk. www.evictionresistance.blogspot.co.uk. www.squashcampaign.org. www.phoenixrainbow23. blogspot.co.uk.

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