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. Author Robert Neuwirth suggested in 2004 that there were one billion squatters globally.
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Vancouver 2010, informally the 21st Winter Olympics, was an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 12 to 28 February 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the surrounding suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University Endowment Lands, and in the nearby resort town of Whistler.
The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is an anti-poverty group in Ontario, Canada, which promotes the interests of the poor and homeless. The group enjoys a particular notoriety, especially in Toronto, due to its use of publicity-generating techniques such as direct action including demonstrations that are sometimes confrontational.
Villa Amalia is the name of the building that hosted the former Second High School of Athens in Greece. It is located on the corner of Acharnon and Heiden streets, near Victoria metro station. It was an anarchist squat before its eviction in 2012. It reopened as a school in 2016.
The Dublin Housing Action Committee (DHAC) was a 1960s protest group formed in response to housing shortages in Dublin, Ireland's capital city. It quickly moved to direct action and successfully squatted buildings to oppose redevelopment plans.
The North Star hotel is a former hotel at the southern edge of Gastown in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located at 5 West Hastings Street, it is a four-story red brick Victorian Italianate construction completed at an unidentified date, between the 1890s and 1904.
Exarcheia is a neighbourhood in central Athens, Greece close to the historical building of the National Technical University of Athens. The district took its name from a 19th century businessman named Exarchos who opened a large general store there. Exarcheia is bordered on the east by Kolonaki and is framed by Patission Street, Panepistimiou Street and Alexandras Avenue. Exarcheia is renowned for being Athens' historical core of radical political and intellectual activism. Exarcheia is often considered the Anarchist quarter of Athens.
The Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA) was a non-profit society in the Downtown Eastside area of Vancouver, operating from 1973 until 2010
The Landless People's Movement was an independent social movement in South Africa. It consisted of rural people and people living in shack settlements in cities. The Landless People's Movement boycotted parliamentary elections and had a history of conflict with the African National Congress. The Landless People's Movement was affiliated to Via Campesina internationally and its Johannesburg branches to the Poor People's Alliance in South Africa.
Take Back the Land is an American organisation based in Miami, Florida devoted to blocking evictions, and rehousing homeless people in foreclosed houses. Take Back the Land was formed in October 2006 to build the Umoja Village Shantytown on a plot of unoccupied land to protest gentrification and a lack of low-income housing in Miami. The group began opening houses in October 2007 and moved six homeless families into vacant homes in 2008. By April 2009, the group had moved 20 families into foreclosed houses. As of November 2008, the group had ten volunteers. Take Back the Land volunteers break into the houses, clean, paint and make repairs, change the locks, and help move the homeless families in. They provide supplies and furniture and help residents turn on electricity and water. Though the occupations are of contested legality, as of December 2008 local police officers were not intervening, judging it to be the responsibility of house owners to protect their property or request assistance.
No Land! No House! No Vote! is the name of a campaign by a number of poor people's movements in South Africa that calls for the boycotting of the vote and a general rejection of party politics and vote banking. The name is meant to imply that if government does not deliver on issues important to affected communities these movements will not vote.
A number of concerns and controversies at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, surfaced before and during the Games, and which received media coverage.
The City is For All is a volunteer based grassroots organization founded in 2009. It operates in Budapest and Pécs in Hungary. Homeless and non-homeless activists work together for housing rights and social justice.
Squatting in England and Wales usually refers to a person who is not the owner, taking possession of land or an empty house. People squat for a variety of reasons which include needing a home, protest, poverty, and recreation. Many squats are residential, some are also opened as social centres. Land may be occupied by New Age travellers or treesitters.
Cheri Lynn Honkala is an American anti-poverty advocate, co-founder of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union (KWRU) and co-founder and National Coordinator of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign. She has been a noted advocate for human rights in the United States and internationally. She is the mother of actor Mark Webber.
Illegal housing in India consists of huts or shanties built on land not owned by the residents and illegal buildings constructed on land not owned by the builders or developers. Although illegal buildings may afford some basic services, such as electricity, in general, illegal housing does not provide services that afford for healthy, safe environments.
Harsha Walia is a South Asian activist and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She is known for her organizing work with No One Is Illegal, the February 14th Women's Memorial March Committee, the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, and several Downtown Eastside housing justice coalitions. Walia has been active in migrant justice, Indigenous solidarity, feminist, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist movements for over a decade. In January 2020 she was announced as the new executive director of the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA). Walia is the author of Undoing Border Imperialism (2013), co-author of Never Home: Legislating Discrimination in Canadian Immigration (2015) as well as Red Women Rising: Indigenous Women Survivors in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (2019), and has contributed to over thirty academic journals, anthologies, magazines and newspapers. She is a frequent guest speaker at campuses and conferences across North America and has delivered numerous presentations to the United Nations.
The Olympic Games have been criticized as upholding the colonial policies and practices of some host nations and cities either in the name of the Olympics by associated parties or directly by official Olympic bodies, such as the International Olympic Committee, host organizing committees and official sponsors.
Athens refugee squats exist since the 2015 spike in the European migrant crisis, Greece has been a destination for migrants seeking refuge on the European continent via the "Balkan Route." Coalitions of solidarity groups and migrants have established squats throughout Athens to house refugees, demonstrating an alternative to solutions offered by the European Union and NGOs. The squats are grouped together in the Coordination of Refugee Squats. Notable projects included 5th School and City Plaza. In late 2019, the New Democracy party declared it would evict all the squats.
Focus E15 is a campaign group formed in 2013, in London, by a group of mothers threatened with eviction from their emergency accommodation. E15 is the postcode of the Stratford district in east London. Having successfully won their own battle, the group has occupied various buildings and supported different individual struggles in order to protest against the local housing policy of Newham Council and for housing rights more generally.
