Squatters take London’s housing crisis into their own hands | Housing

In the shopping streets and housing estates of the south London town of Croydon, some once derelict buildings are slowly coming back to life.

At a former school, peeling walls get a fresh coat of paint and laundry hangs on a line to dry. At a disused youth center, laughter can be heard in the dormitory-turned-gymnasium, and a vase of purple flowers decorates a scuffed kitchen counter.

The Reclaim Croydon collective, a group of squatters, have taken over disused commercial premises to provide beds for the homeless, saying they offer a community solution to a broken housing market.

“The government is failing the homeless,” one of the new occupants of the youth center, which goes by the name Leaf, told Reuters.

Britain has long been short of housing, but a 22% rise in private rents in England over the past five years has left a growing number of people struggling to find somewhere to live. Housing routinely features in the top five issues pollsters report as most important to voters ahead of Thursday’s general election.

High rents and unaffordable house prices have meant that people in their 20s and 30s still live at home with their parents or share. At the extreme end, growing numbers are sleeping on the streets and in empty buildings, official figures show.

Studies have found that ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected, with a 2022 report published by the charity Center for Homelessness Impact showing that black people were more than three times more likely to become homeless than white people in England.

Both Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives and the main opposition Labor Party have pledged to tackle the housing crisis by building more homes.

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

“We’re seeing more and more councils saying that temporary accommodation budgets for people they theoretically have a legal duty to accommodate are effectively bankrupting them,” said Chris Bailey, campaign manager for the charity Action on Empty Homes , for Reuters.

Croydon – a large town built up with high-rise apartment blocks and offices – had nearly 4,000 derelict properties in October 2023, according to government figures.

On the main shopping streets, closed businesses and posters advertising closing sales are hidden among discount stores and a bustling market.

Alex, 28, a Reclaim Croydon organiser, said the group had renovated around 30 buildings since it was set up last year, providing homes for more than 100 people.

The group first makes sure the buildings are vacant and have basic needs like running water and electricity, he said. They then make repairs to make them livable, which can include installing showers and kitchens, fixing leaks and removing mold.

The people who live in the buildings come from diverse backgrounds. Some are trying to escape the streets, others the turmoil of living in various temporary accommodations.

“Many people in the UK are simply stuck in the limbo of homelessness and would rather stay with us,” said Alex.

A culture of squatting has existed in Britain for hundreds of years. After World War II, many soldiers and their families moved into empty military bases. In the 1970s, the movement took on a political aspect as anarchists took over the buildings in acts of protest.

Since 2012, it is illegal to squat in residential buildings. But commercial squatting is not a criminal offense provided no damage is done and the squatters leave at the disposal of a court.

The British Association of Landlords estimates that occupancy in commercial buildings has risen by almost 300 percent since December 2021, which its boss, Sajjad Ahmad, attributes to government policies rather than occupiers.

In 2017, the government said 300,000 new homes a year were needed in England by the mid-2020s to address the affordability constraint. Since then, fewer than 250,000 have been built on average each year. Some landlords have also been happy to let properties sit empty, benefiting from rising valuations.