In solidarity with squatting movements and homeless people
Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there were one billion slum residents and squatters globally. Squatting occurs worldwide and tends to occur when people who are poor and homeless find empty buildings or land to occupy for housing. It has a long history.
The majority of squatting is residential in nature. As a phenomenon it tends to occur when a poor and homeless population makes use of derelict property or land through urban homesteading. According to an academic, Kesia Reeve, "squatting is largely absent from policy and academic debate and is rarely conceptualised, as a problem, as a symptom, or as a social or housing movement."
In many of the world's poorer countries, there are extensive slums or shanty towns, typically built on the edges of major cities and consisting almost entirely of self-constructed housing built without the landowner's permission.
Squatting can be related to political movements, such as anarchist, autonomist, or socialist. It can be a means to conserve buildings or a protest action. Squats can be used by local communities as free shops, cafés, venues, pirate radio stations or as multi-purpose autonomous social centres. Dutch sociologist Hans Pruijt separates types of squatters into five distinct categories:
• Deprivation-based – homeless people squatting for housing need
• An alternative housing strategy – people unprepared to wait on municipal lists to be housed take direct action
• Entrepreneurial – people breaking into buildings to service the need of a community for cheap bars, clubs etc.
•Conservational – preserving monuments because the authorities have let them decay
•Political – activists squatting buildings as protests or to make social centres
Complete solidarity. Homelessness in a rich nation with a surplus of housing is a heartless waste. Squatting is a healthy example of the market correcting itself. Full property rights should not extend beyond one's primary residence and properly managed rentals. An empty or underused residential property should be subject to compulsory purchase or punitive taxes to compensate for the social damage inflicted by witholding a scarce resource.
On the farm there are 4 fully refurbished and furnished empty houses . I would aggressively remove squatters if they attempted to break in and inhabit them . Property owners have rights . I do not agree with squatting .
@TexChik A very inhumane thing you announce so proudly. Talking to squatters and realizing that possession of 4 empty houses is incredibly priviledged and unnecessary would be humane.
@RebelliousSpirit not all , we do use them for guests and family . The fact that you believe it’s ok to take what is not yours is disgusting . If a place was abandoned and not maintained then have at it . Maintained property is just that . Someone else’s property .
Empty homes is particularly is issue in the UK,and London in particular.
Property is expensive and rising so investors but up houses and keep them vacant as an appreciating asset. Meanwhile, people are living on the street. Many more are trapped in an extortionate private rental market.
It's a combination between little space, no council houses and a political class that don't give a toss.
@Burnley123 There is actually nothing wrong with acquiring assets in the property sector Houses or land it has become a way of making money work for you as an investor and it was driven by very bad interest rates that were being offered by the financial institutions, lots of the councils have also sold off their assets as they no longer had the finances available to keep them.
@Longleggedlady [quote]There is actually nothing wrong with acquiring assets in the property sector Houses or land it has become a way of making money[/quote]
Yes there is. I'm blaming the system here, not people personally. We have a housing shortage in the country by design. Its great for landlords and investors. Those lucky enough to have bought their home years ago also do well. Those not in these positions get screwed.
An abandoned apartment block just north of my house burned to the ground a month ago. Homeless people lit a fire inside to keep warm. Now there is one less building in the neighborhood for squatters.
See i have had problems with squatters with people who had a rental agreement then out of the blue stopped paying. Not only that they caused a considerable amount of damage to the property.
@MarkPaul That unfortunately can happen with squatters who suffer from addiction or other mental health problems. If they are not part of a commune and squat alone they lack the support they need.
Nope. Private property owners have expenses and legal responsibilities for their property. I have been without a vehicle but that don’t give me the right to find one parked somewhere and hot wire it and drive it around.
@RebelliousSpirit You can advocate all you want but someone who doesn’t respect boundaries won’t respect their property either. A bout a half mile away a group of 20 homeless took over a vacant densely trees lot that another elderly man owned. It was next to a residential neighborhood. He would have the police clear the property but they would come right back gain. He couldn’t keep them away from his property.. There is a homeless shelter and meal kitchen down the road but apparently not everyone wants to abide by the rules. Some of these people also had dogs. It got in such bad shape that the man signed it over to city. The city spent $50,000 and got a bulldozer and dump trucks to clear out more than 70 tons of trash, human & dog waste, rotted food, discarded furniture etc. Social workers identified the campers and offered all of them help to get their birth certificates, , Social Security cards, IDs made etc so they could sign them up for a housing list and food stamps etc. Nearly half of them refused the help. They just moved onto other wooded read including one about 4 blocks from my neighborhood.
@cherokeepatti That's terrible yet not as black and white as you depict it. Shelters and soup kitchen are no proper solution and only temprory or even bad places. The stigma is huge which makes it difficult to accept help. Especially in the US one who is not productive and possesses no property is basically seen as worthless.
I also know plenty of nice and sweet squatting places where also more priviledged people who have a stable life help out.
@RebelliousSpirit Eleven of those people refused any kind of help. They are polluting the land and waterways. This is a public health hazard among other things.
@RebelliousSpirit [quote]Well fuck multi million dollar homes. No one deserves so much money.[/quote] LOL. Million dollar homes are pretty common these days. Besides, who are you to say how much money people deserve?
You think you see greed, but staring back at you is envy.
Nothing is free. Not a damn thing.
The truth about politics is ugly. Biden and Obama are corrupt criminals. But that's how it is with most democrats and republicans. The concept of bipartisanship is mostly an illusion to keep people divided. You've seem to fallen for the most divisive political trick or all...pitting the haves vs the have nots.
There is a painting of Klaus Schwab with a white guy on one side and a black guy on the other. Klaus has a giant plate of cookies. The white guy and black guy each have one. Klaus is whispering into the ear of the white guy, saying the black guy is trying to steal his cookie. That's the world of politics in a nutshell. And the Obama's, Bush's, Biden's aren't the ones calling the shots.
[quote]Oh I would love to see the whole damn system in the US go down.[/quote] Be careful what you wish for. It's closer than you may realize. And I doubt you'll be loving it if it actually happens.
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That's what I did the first couple of years after getting kicked out of home... Now I live in an area that has 4 blocks over, million dollar houses with no one in them.
I stayed in a squat in Amsterdam's in the late 80s. It was great,the building was stories high. We had our electricity and gas supplies running. It was a great place to live.
Some would say, "Squatting is a short cut used by many that are unreasonably illiterate, horrendously inumerate and made that way by a broken educational system."
Others say, "It's because nobody wants to give office work that pays 50k a year to a nincompoop when 50k is an appropriate wage for a nincompoop."
Still others would say, "Saying things like the above are crazy, because everybody knows that the bosses and politicians and the teachers and police and bus drivers are worth every penny of the 100k plus they get paid."
Then again, what do I know? I'm just a nincompoop. Lol
