Squatters are taking London’s housing crisis into their own hands

STORY: “So this is an abandoned school. It’s been closed for over four years. Now we have some work to do. We just managed to turn on the water…”

The streets and blocks of flats in the south London town of Croydon are dotted with neglected buildings like this one.

But little by little, they are brought back to life by a group of squatters, who take over disused commercial premises to house the homeless.

“We’ve got some black mold, so we’re going to have to clean it up quite a bit…”

Squatting is when people deliberately enter a property without permission and then live there.

Alex is a member of Reclaim Croydon, which says it offers a community solution to a broken housing market.

“There is no type of person who can come here. We have, we have young trans kids that come here, you know, and they hide from the rest of the world because of transphobia. We have refugees. We have elderly people.”

Alex says Reclaim Croydon checks that buildings are vacant and have basic needs such as water and electricity.

The group, formed in 2023, says it has renovated around 30 empty buildings and provided homes for more than 100 people.

Leaf, which is non-binary, is one of them.

They say they have been living on the streets and in squats after rising rents outstripped government benefits and housing allowances.

Leaf says support from Reclaim Croydon has turned their situation around.

“I’d be dead. It’s come close at times. This has literally saved lives, finding the squatting community in London. I’m disabled, I wouldn’t have survived on the streets. Simple as that.”

Like most of the occupants interviewed by Reuters, Leaf would give only one name to avoid attracting the attention of the authorities.

Reclaim Croydon says many homeless people are also squatting to avoid the upheaval of life in various temporary accommodation.

Many go through welfare safety nets because vulnerable people are less likely to seek help through formal channels.

Britain has long been short of housing, and squatting culture has existed there for hundreds of years.

In the 1970s, the movement became more political, with anarchists taking over buildings in acts of protest.

Since 2012, it has been illegal to squat in residential buildings such as apartments or houses.

Commercial squatting, however, is not a criminal offense – provided no damage is done and squatters leave when ordered by a court.

A 22% rise in private rents in England over the past five years has meant that the number of people struggling to find a home has increased.

Housing campaigners have long argued that local councils should use some of England’s estimated 700,000 vacant buildings as a cheaper and faster solution.

The British Landlords Association estimates that squatter occupancy in commercial buildings has risen by nearly 300% since December 2021 – a problem its boss blames on government policies rather than squatters.

Britain’s biggest political parties, the Conservatives and Labour, have vowed to tackle the crisis by building more homes.

They didn’t make people available to discuss the housing crisis.