Vogelvrij Newsletter #1
Of course these news are not complete, we just collected the different things we heard about and the information we could find. If there is something you would like to see in our next newsletter or if you notice that we got some information wrong, send us an email! [Read More]
Today on Monday the 29th of May, we announce that we have squatted this apartment on Tweede Kostverlorenkade in Amsterdam. We are a group of people from different ages and places, who resort to squatting because we have no other option.
This place is owned by the social housing company Rochdale, that has been leaving it empty since August. Our action is both a political action and a way to find housing. We squat because it is getting almost impossible to get access to affordable housing in Amsterdam. Today, there are 53 000 less social housing apartments than in 2003. That is why our action is also a political statement. We think it is scandalous that apartments stay empty while people have to sleep in the street and we are against the reduction of social housing opportunities. [Read More]
So then…
Under a Bridge
The building under the bridge, here at the Rotterdamseweg, has been vacant since 2017. During this period we have never seen any activity happening in the enormous warehouse. Unlike the typical trolls that usually settle under bridges, we are a set of neat students and former students looking for a place to make for ourselves. Over the past few years we have developed the idea of reopening this place to Delft and giving it a purpose again.
The hall under the bridge is not privately owned, but by the province of Zuid-Holland (and therefore a bit by us all). It is meant to be left vacant and finally for demolition. We are open to conversations and will accommodate proper plans for the future. Until that time we’ll take this opportunity to create a lively place for ourselves to reside and for anyone who wishes to join.
Already over a longer period, the situation about housing has been a hot topic. Instead of focussing on an “anti”-tone, the opposing, we want to propagate a narrative that is based around sound that is “in favour of”. Under the slogan “Niet lullen maar poetsen!” [meaning something like: “Don’t blab on, just mop!”], we aim to contribute and assist in finding a solution to the problems as explained below. In a cheerful and constructive manner, we organize this new space in Delft where there is room to live, experiment, meet up and organize. We offer Delft the opportunity to expand her repertoire with the 1500m² under the bridge. In the manner of e.g. cooking or dwelling, lectures or music. Initiative and enthusiasm are welcome Under the Bridge, to appropriate the space and make it a place for us all! [Read More]
Statement by the Krakenburg collective, squatting the terrain at Laan van Kronenburg 12, next to the Uilenstede campus. The action was revealed on 19 May. The terrain is owned by Mytylstichting Amstelrade and not by the municipality as originally stated by the squatters:
The piece of land has been empty for almost 10 year, and belongs to the municipality who hasn’t been able to use it due to the noise from mass polluter Schiphol. This is unacceptable in times of housing crisis and so we are taking matters into our own hands. We want to make a beautiful place with a shared garden, where everyone can get involved to transform it into an anti-capitalist space that everyone can enjoy. [Read More]
Statement by AFGA after squatting Kanaalstraat 128, owned by the family Uit den Boogaard.
On the 14th of May, we revealed Villa Mina to the world. This beautiful house has been vacant since at least 2017. The Anarcha-Feminist Group Amsterdam (AFGA) has been an active part of the squatting scene here for a few years.
The time has now come to find a house specifically for WLINTA* (Women, Lesbian, Intersex, Non-binary, Trans, Agender) people and to find our space. We desire a house free of sexism, machoism, transphobia, etc while more WLINTA* people are finding themselves without homes or unable to pay their rent around us. This building is thus a home for WLINTA* people only, and the new political space for AFGA.
The lack of affordable housing and the rising cost of living has made it increasingly difficult for working-class people to survive. Many of us live from paycheck to paycheck. Years of austerity policies and cuts in public services like social housing have created this “crisis”. This was a political choice, which has had fatal consequences. [Read More]
Yesterday on the birthday of the king, there was a suspicious puppetshow in Taksteeg, a side street from the busy shopping street of Kalverstraat. In this puppet show, the mayor, the king and a member of parliament were talking about how to make the city more wealthy. Their conclusion, in six months, all of the people in the city should be evicted and all of their homes should be converted to hotels. They were so happy with this plan that they started partying to an André Hazes junior techno remix. At this party, the MP sneaked out and went to the people, the MP told the people about their plans, and pleaded for a revolution and the beheading of the king. After a lot of screaming and rioting of the people, the guillotine was brought out, where the king met his faith, and the people reclaimed their city.
After this revolution, another city was also being reclaimed. Right above the puppet show, a banner which read “geen woning geen koning” (no home no king) was dropped. An old store had been squatted, right in the rich tourist and yuppy center of Amsterdam. The building has been empty for more than three years. The cops came, asked a neighbour how long it had been empty and told the squatters that they were not going to speed evict, and the regular procedure will happen. [Read More]
This Thursday, April 6 at 9am, the municipality of Ixelles evicted a squat of 7 undocumented people, applying an inhabitability order dating from October 2022, without any rehousing solution at the end. The squat located at 20 rue Élise had opened at the end of September 2022, in a building empty since 2017.
They are all ex-hunger strikers of the ULB (2021). This group of people had then lived (with other people) in a building in the See U thanks to a temporary occupancy agreement. But they were expelled at the end of September. So they sought refuge in this empty house. The irony is that they regularly work in the construction sector and have not yet won their fight to obtain papers: [Read More]
Activists who took over the multi-million property (Vossiusstraat 16) owned by Russian sanctioned billionaire Arkady Volozh last October, are facing another court case this coming Wednesday.
Volozh, the founder of Russian search engine Yandex, lost an earlier court case against the squatters in November. At that time the judge ruled the squatters would not have to vacate the property because it is frozen as a result of the sanctions and would thus remain unused, since Volozh is barred from entering Europe after being placed on the EU sanctions list for promoting the war with Ukraine through his search engine. The legal situation remains unchanged since November, as Volozh is still on the EU sanctions list. He nonetheless will try his luck again in a higher appeal set to take place this Wednesday.
The squatters attest that the opposing party has submitted last-minute evidence in an attempt to discredit the new residents. The evidence includes videos and pictures taken from inside the squatted building and screenshots from an internal group chat. According to the squatters these videos were taken without their knowledge and consent over a period of two months by a man who claimed to be a refugee from Ukraine in need of a place to stay. [Read More]
An expected deadline. Because property rights are greater than the right of residence. Makes sense, right? That is certainly the logic of the rich. For those who do not have a home, this makes less sense. “But that’s their problem.” Among the Pandemistes there are effectively a number of people who will no longer have a home, but fortunately can go somewhere temporarily. This is less obvious to those who are undocumented. “But that’s their problem.”
We might have been able to get a longer term from the judge if we had put more effort into PROVING our positive impact on the neighborhood. But frankly, we much prefer to focus on BEING a positive influence on the neighborhood. By organizing countless events and giving people a taste of the freedom of such a place. [Read More]
We, the new residents of the apartment at Binnenkadijk 478, were approached by Alliantie on Monday 27 March and invited for a talk. By squatting this apartment, we are supporting a pre-existing struggle and protest around Alliantie’s plan to sell 140 social rental homes in the Entrepotdok complex (a unique project designed to jointly house social housing, housing groups and middle-class tenants), and to provide ourselves with housing in a city that has become increasingly unlivable for people with lower incomes.
Given the supposed mission/vision of Alliantie as a housing corporation to provide residents of Amsterdam with affordable housing, we hoped for a friendly conversation aimed at finding a solution that is beneficial for all parties involved. Unfortunately, nothing came of it. The flat had been vacant for seven months for no apparent reason (the previous occupants were evicted for bureaucratic/legal formalities) and no plans for the future were made public or even communicated to the residents. Coincidentally, shortly after the occupation, Alliantie informed the residents of the complex for the first time about various possible future scenarios for the apartment. This is not the first time such a coincidence has occurred. Despite the fact that Alliantie’s plans for the housing are in the early stages and are only ideas at the moment, they plan to evict us as soon as possible and thereby make us homeless. A curious approach for a housing corporation, which contradicts their own core values and, moreover, with usual legal standards that are applied to squatting cases. The right to housing is – at least in theory – only taken away from people if there is a concrete future plan for the housing in question (supported by evidence), which is also about to be implemented. This is clearly not the case for Binnenkadijk 478. [Read More]
The Binnenkadijk 478 apartment has been squatted in protest against the vacancy of rental properties in the middle of a housing crisis and has been occupied since Tuesday 21 March. The house is located in the Entrepotdok complex and the owner is the housing corporation de Alliantie. The residents of the complex are fighting against the Alliance’s plan to sell 140 apartments in the complex, an outrageous proposal that will reduce the social housing stock in Amsterdam and destroy a truly unique socialist project.
We have squatted the apartment to take direct action against the unjustified vacancy since the previous residents were evicted in September last year. We believe that no perfectly habitable apartments should be left vacant while so many, including ourselves, have to struggle to find affordable housing. [Read More]
For several days now, we have been occupying and living in Woestduinstraat 72 HS. Since the 25th of march we announced the occupation by means of a protest.
This social housing property has been vacant for a year awaiting sale. This action is a protest against the sale of social housing and the subsequent sell-out of the city, by housing corporations and the municipality. Lieven de Key has put this house on the market in a dilapidated state for a staggering 475,000. The house is on the ground floor and would have made a good home for seniors or those with mobility problems. But it is clear that Lieven de Key does not give a fuck about the residents of the city and cares more about gentrification and profit.
Since the 1990s, profit maximization has been the main goal of housing cooperatives. While housing cooperatives claim to build more social housing outside the center with the proceeds from sales, the overall share of social housing in Amsterdam is decreasing. Social housing associations are contributing to gentrification and original residents have to make way for people with more money. Housing is not being built for the working class and the social housing that remains is often neglected and left in a bad state. [Read More]
