Related Research Articles
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, broken down by country below.
The University of Birmingham is a public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham, and Mason Science College, making it the first English civic or 'red brick' university to receive its own royal charter. It is a founding member of both the Russell Group of British research universities and the international network of research universities, Universitas 21.
Edgbaston is a mostly affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre.
Harborne is an area of south-west Birmingham, England. It is one of the most affluent areas of the Midlands, three miles southwest from Birmingham city centre. It is a Birmingham City Council ward in the formal district and in the parliamentary constituency of Birmingham Edgbaston.
A tent city is a temporary housing facility made using tents or other temporary structures.
St Agnes Place was a squatted street in Kennington, south London, which resisted eviction orders for more than 30 years. When a number of derelict houses were scheduled for demolition to extend Kennington Park in 1969, squatters occupied the properties and a High Court injunction prevented the demolition. The street was run by a housing cooperative until 2005, when Lambeth London Borough Council obtained an eviction order. Demolition was completed in 2007.
Lee Bank was an inner city area of Birmingham, England. It was part of the Edgbaston and Ladywood wards, inside the Middle Ring Road or Middleway, which surrounds Central Birmingham.
The modern environmental direct action movement in the United Kingdom started in 1991 with the formation of the first UK Earth First! group for a protest at Dungeness nuclear power station. Within two years, there were fifty Earth First! groups and activists linked with other parties in the road protest movement. There were large camps at Twyford Down and the M11 link road protest. By 1997, the Government had decided to reduce its road-building plans by two thirds.
Dale Farm is a plot of land situated on Oak Lane in Crays Hill, Essex, United Kingdom. Until October 2011, it was the site of one of the largest Traveller concentrations in the UK, at its height housing over 1,000 people, along with the adjacent Oak Land site. Although Basildon District Council had granted permission for the site to be used by a small number of Traveller families, no planning permission was given for the expansion of the site into land located within the Green Belt.
Abahlali baseMjondolo is a shack dwellers' movement in South Africa which organised land occupations, builds collectives, and campaigns against evictions and xenophobia and for public housing. The movement grew out of a road blockade organised from the Kennedy Road shack settlement in the city of Durban. As of June 2021 it claims to have "more than 100 000 members in 86 branches across five provinces".
Birmingham is a major city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. It is the UK's largest and most populated metropolitan borough, standing as the "Core City" within the second-largest metropolitan area and third-largest urban area in the United Kingdom, with roughly 1.2 million inhabitants within the borough (city-proper) area, 2.8 million inhabitants within the urban area and 4.3 million inhabitants within the larger metropolitan area. Birmingham is commonly referred to as the "second city of the United Kingdom".
The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign was a non-racial popular movement made up of poor and oppressed communities in Cape Town, South Africa. It was formed in November 2000 with the aim of fighting evictions, water cut-offs and poor health services, obtaining free electricity, securing decent housing, and opposing police brutality.
Symphony Way Informal Settlement was a small community of pavement dwellers that lived on Symphony Way, a main road in Delft, South Africa, from February 2008 till late 2009. They were a group of families that were evicted in February 2008 from the N2 Gateway Houses.
Take Back the Land is an American organization 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.
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.
Squatting in the United States is the unauthorized use of real estate. Historically, squatting occurred during the California Gold Rush and when colonial European settlers established land rights. There was squatting during the Great Depression in Hoovervilles and also during World War II. Shanty towns returned to the US after the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009 and in the 2010s, there have been increasing numbers of people squatting foreclosed homes using fraudulent documents. In some cases, a squatter may be able to obtain ownership of property through adverse possession.
Occupy Homes or Occupy Our Homes is part of the Occupy movement which attempts to prevent the foreclosure of people's homes. Protesters delay foreclosures by camping out on the foreclosed property. They also stage protests at the banks responsible for the ongoing foreclosure crisis, sometimes blocking their entrances. It has been compared to the direct action taken by people to prevent home foreclosures during the Great Depression in the United States.
Focus E15 is a campaign group formed in London in 2013 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.
Squatting in the Republic of Ireland is the occupation of unused land or derelict buildings without the permission of the owner. In the 1960s, the Dublin Housing Action Committee highlighted the housing crisis by squatting buildings. From the 1990s onwards there have been occasional political squats such as Grangegorman.
References
- ↑ "Council seeks to evict protesters". BBC News . 8 November 2008. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
- ↑ "Protesters camp out in homes plea". BBC. 31 October 2008. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
- ↑ Spring, Russ; Brum Imcista. "Councillor John Lines' Homeless Village in Birmingham". Independent Media Center. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
- ↑ "Evicted protesters move down road". BBC. 2008. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
- ↑ Elkes, Neil (1 October 2010). "First new Birmingham council home in Balsall Heath". Birmingham Mail . Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
- ↑ "Campaign group take to rooftops". BBC News . 6 May 2009. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
- ↑ Farncombe, Vicky (21 February 2009). "Evicted Edgbaston pub squatters move into derelict terrace". Birmingham Mail . Archived from the original on 30 September 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
| Influences |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Squatter groups | ||
| Legalized squats | ||
| Former squats |
| |
| Notable squatters | ||
| Legal framework | ||
| Linked topics | ||
