Squatters will be forced to leave vacant homes that the state acquired for the defunct East West Link project, after the Andrews government won a legal battle to take them over.
Community lawyer Meghan Fitzgerald, who has represented a number of the residents in long-running negotiations with the state government over the properties, said warrants could be issued in coming days to remove any remaining people from the properties.
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Dozens of people, including children and pregnant women, have been living in houses in Bendigo Street, Collingwood, since March, when about 50 homeless people and members of the Homeless Persons Union Victoria moved into Bendigo Street in protest against what they said was a waste of inner-city housing.
According to Ms Fitzgerald, many of the homes have already been vacated.
![Community lawyer Meghan Fitzgerald outside the Supreme Court on Thursday with one of the Bendigo Street squatters, "Spike".](/web/20161112131042im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/m/9/2/m/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsm58p.png/1478759976245.jpg)
Last week, Fairfax Media reported up to 50 police officers forcibly removed people who had taken over a house that was reclaimed a week earlier.
The state was previously prevented from evicting residents under a Supreme Court injunction that gave them more time to find alternative housing.
Community lawyers had been negotiating with the government since the injunction was withdrawn on when it could recover the properties, but Ms Fitzgerald said talks broke down after police moved in last week.
The secretary of the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources successfully asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to order that the government could take back the properties.
![Squatters from East West Link housing in Bendigo Street, Collingwood, defy police on November 2.](/web/20161112131042im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/g/l/2/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsm58p.png/1478759976245.jpg)
A department spokesman confirmed it would seek warrants from the court to "vacate the people illegally occupying all five properties on Bendigo Street".
Counsel for the secretary, Melinda Richards, SC, gave the court evidence that the state owned properties at 24, 16, 26 and 18 Bendigo Street, Collingwood.
Most of the people living in the properties were unknown and did not attend court.
Ms Fitzgerald told the court that charity groups had found other accommodation for a number of residents, but some were still struggling to leave, including a number of Aboriginal residents who had more intensive needs.
Associate Justice Mark Derham said he was satisfied the state was the legal owner of the properties and that the residents had occupied the land without consent.
He later formally ordered that the secretary recover possession of the properties.
Outside court, Ms Fitzgerald said none of the residents had opposed the applications, and they were not arguing over ownership rights.
"The word 'squatter' gets used a lot, but really this is about people who want to pay rent but just can't enter a rental market that's unaffordable to them and are unable to access public housing."
She said community legal groups and charities would continue working with remaining residents to try to organise housing.
Spike Chiappalone, from the Homeless Persons Union, said the group originally started its protest to raise awareness of the state's housing crisis and the fact that the acquired properties were vacant, rather than for self-promotion.
"Mismanagement of empty publicly owned properties has contributed to the suffering of at least 25,000 Victorians," he said.
"There's 35,000 people on the public housing waiting list."
With Clay Lucas