A few days ago the former Camelot Europe HQ, in Westland Park London N1 was squatted in protest against guardian companies’ anti-social profiteering from empty properties and homelessness.

For those who don’t know, Camelot are the original “guardian” company, invented to counter the squatting movement in Holland by moving in people who act as security by living there. Guardians pay rent but have less protection than ordinary tenants, at least according to the wording of their contracts. Other guardian companies also exist, such as our least-favourite Dot Dot Dot ……

A couple of articles have appeared in the Guardian but with certain problems. Both of them seem to agree with Camelot that what the people acting as security guards by living in their properties are is merely licencees, when most legal advice shows that they clearly have tenancies. When challenged on this point most guardian companies back down and come to a deal, rather than allow the issue to go to court.

On Monday 26th Camelot security guards tried to besiege the building, agreeing to let people out but nobody and nothing in. Over a period of days the situation ebbed and flowed, with police from the station a couple of minutes away getting called out regularly to referee a stand-off between security and supporters of the occupiers. At one point the besiegers themselves got besieged. They were allowed to leave but not get back in.

A couple of times the police imposed exclusion orders but only for a while. The last straw for the cops was when security tried forcing entry during the night and they were finally told to leave and that had to get a possession order to get the occupiers out.

Advice from ASS is that if you squat somewhere with an entranceway between the door and the public highway you need to take control of this space.

http://www.squashcampaign.org/2016/09/four-years-since-residential-squatting-criminalised/

Four years ago today, squatting in empty residential properties became a criminal offence in England and Wales, with the introduction of section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (2012). Since then many young and homeless people have felt the effects of the new law, and squatting itself has become an ever more precarious housing option, with:

• Alex Haigh (21) becoming the first to be arrested and imprisonment for the new “crime” of squatting, and Daniel Gauntlett (35) the first known death caused by the new law. These are just two known victims of this unnecessary law;
• Over 700 people have been arrested, 300+ prosecuted, and at least 10 imprisoned for section 144, since it was introduced on 1st September 2012 [Squatting Statistics 2015 (May 2016)]
• With the new law, there has been a lawless persecution of squatters, from private security firms undertaking illegal evictions, to a general misrepresentation of squatters as “criminals”;
• England & Wales have lost many important squats in the period, including land-squats, Yorkley Court & Runnymede , and social centres and venues (too many to mention).

While squatting has become tougher, all is not doom and gloom. There have been many successful squats and occupations, including residential buildings, and squatting continues in commercial properties, albeit on a much smaller scale and less visibly than before. Just a few months ago squatters stopped the sale of a council house in Avonmouth by squatting the residential building for six weeks, and in Loughborough Junction, Mornington Crescent and Russell Square, squatters successfully resisted their evictions by High Court Bailiffs (no mean achievement). But the constant moving from one property to the next is wearing people thin.

The pressure on squatting, caused by the new law, means that many homeless people are no longer able to turn to 600,000+ empty houses in England & Wales for shelter. Instead, they have been forced onto the street, or into exploitative license agreements with property guardian companies.

And even though section 144 is exacerbating the housing crisis, back-bench politicians from both major political parties have been calling for an extension of criminalisation to commercial buildings; in July this year, Labour MP Dawn Butler (Brent, London) asked the Secretary of State when he was planning on bringing forward such legislation.

Therefore Squatters Action for Secure Homes (SQUASH) is calling for a repeal of section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (2012), and an extension of rights for people squatting empty buildings, through frameworks like the “Convention on the Use of Space”.

What You Can Do

> Sign SQUASH’s “Repeal section 144” Petition

> Visit our webpage, “10 Ways You Can Help”,for ideas

> Start Squatting, and/or support your local squats

> Be Ready to Mobilise if new legislation is proposed – keep an eye out for announcements in the squat media

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2016-07-04.41664.h&s=squat#g41664.r0

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Friday 10th June Freedom building monthly social from 6pm until 9.
(then later there’s an Oi Poloi benefit for continuing the beach trespass they did recently at T Chances, not that anyone else needs to raise money to party on the beach!)

Saturday 11th June Towpath Gathering – annual boaters fest on the canal by the Canal Gate, Victoria Park from 12

Saturday 11th June 2-4 Squatting in the Netherlands: Talk by ETC Dee at Decentre (downstairs from ASS)

Tuesday 14th June 8.30am Protest at the London Real Estate Forum 2016, Berkeley Sq W1

Saturday 18th June National Protest against the Housing and Planning Act, gather 12 at Hyde Pk Corner.

Jack Tafari, homeless activist has died

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/10/jack-tafari-obituary

The link between rising homelessness and the criminalisation of squatting – May 2016

Squatters Action for Secure Homes (SQUASH) has been tracking implementation of section 144 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (s144 LASPOA) since it came into effect in September 2012. Section 144 criminalises squatting in empty residential properties, gives the police new powers, and guilt is determined by a lay magistrate, rather than a trained judge. Since 2012, there have been at least 738 arrests, 326 prosecutions and over 60 convictions for the offence. The consequence of the new law, are now starting to be felt.

see more at http://www.squashcampaign.org/repeal-law/report-squatting-statistics-2015/