Help Fight the Criminalisation of Squatting!

Dear friends of SQUASH,

It's been a while since we've been in touch, and lots has happened. As you are probably aware section 144 came into force on 1st September 2012, making it a criminal offence to squat in residential properties.

The rushed and undemocratic way in which this law was passed has aggravated its already radically unjust foundations.

Housing-related statistics make increasingly depressing reading, with latest figures showing a 60% increase in the number of families in B&Bs, and an astonishing 86% increase in the number of working adults who have to rely on housing benefits to pay their rent. Below you can find out a bit more about the impact that section 144 is having on people’s lives.

We need your stories to challenge this profoundly unjust and damaging law - please see the end for more details on how to help.

Section 144 sends homeless to prison

The first high profile prosecution under the new law, the case of Alex Haigh exemplifies the injustice of criminalising squatting.
Twenty-one year old Alex had come to London seeking an apprenticeship as a carpenter, but ended up unemployed and homeless.

Rather than sleep on the streets, he made a home in an unused Housing Association building. He was arrested two days after the change in the law, and sent to prison for twelve weeks. 

At just 18 years old Cameron Makepeace is probably the youngest person to have been convicted of squatting so far. After losing his apprenticeship and his home, Cameron was having problems getting job seekers’ allowance and housing benefit.

Facing homelessness, Cameron used an empty building for three weeks. He was handed an 18 week suspended sentence.

Neither of these young men had any previous convictions, and both had no other options. The same is true of the five teenagers arrested for squatting in Somerset following overcrowding at the local YMCA, or the two arrested following a stand-off in Brighton.

With a criminal record, it will now be harder than ever for them to find work and pull themselves out of difficulty. And with homelessness soaring across the country this kind of punishment for making use of an abandoned building to ensure a roof over your head cannot be accepted.

Your stories needed

We’re trying to build a better picture of the damage being caused by section 144 and are currently putting together a report to be launched in Parliament some time in March. We believe that in many cases, people are choosing homelessness over arrest. We believe that many others may have left long-standing homes in residential squats, and moved into inadequate commercial alternatives.

If you were squatting in a residential building, what have you done? Or if you work with people who have been squatters, what have you heard? How are the police using the new offence: to threaten, to evict, or to arrest? Whatever experiences you’ve got or have heard about, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at info@squashcampaign.org

Petition

SQUASH are currently busy planning a campaign to repeal section 144. We aren't going to say much more than that for now but we have launched a petition which should give you an idea of some of the arguments we will be using. The link to the petition is here - it has already received over 1000 signatures in just over a week.

Guardian Feature

The Guardian ran a brilliant four page feature on squatting in its G2 magazine back in December 2012.

It was the best and most accurate analysis of everything that is wrong about the new law and SQUASH is quoted throughout.

You can read the article online: www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/03/squatters-criminalised-not-home-stealers

Stay up-to-date

Don’t forget to follow our twitter and blog for the latest news, and we’ll be in touch soon (promise!) with more info on what comes next.