SAVE OUR SQUATS!

You may be aware that the British government has pledged to criminalise squatting by Spring 2012.

You may also have read the various reports in the press, particularly the Daily Mail, Telegraph and Evening Standard on the recent targeting of peoples homes by squatters while they are away.

There is absolutely no justification for invading someone's home. In any right-minded society it should be a criminal activity, and the legal ability to get away with it deplorable and base.

Which is precisely why occupying someone's home or business premises is already illegal.

Housing Minister Grant Shapps is well aware that squatters can only occupy empty, unutilised buildings. So are most of the staff at the Daily Mail and Evening Standard.

And yet the minister who insists he 'got into politics' to 'tackle homelessness' and the paper who campaigns boldly for 'The Dispossessed' are deliberately misinforming the public to fit an agenda of political point-scoring, by criminalising the homeless at a time when more and more are finding it harder and harder to pay rent or afford a house.

But don't take our word for it. On September 25th 2011 160 lawyers and academics wrote to the Guardian in disgust at the way media and politicians are misleading about law on squatters.

Over the next few weeks, we will be in regular contact with you asking for your continued and much needed support as we work with Squatters' Action for Secure Homes (http://www.squashcampaign.org) in this fight of David and Goliath proportions against the government's plans to criminalise this invaluable means of self-empowerment.

Please start by voting to make 'Resist the Criminalisation of Squatting' a priority campaign on 38 Degrees.

Yours, as always,

Dan & The Oubliette

Here are some recent examples of press efforts to connect the legal ability to squat with either blatantly illegal or unrelated anti-social activity particular to occupation:

* Tenancy disputes: (eg the case of Dy Maurice)

Tenants or sub-tenants who refuse to pay rent are not protected by any of the rights afforded to squatters, even if they claim them until they are blue in the face, rather the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. Squatters have no tenancy rights. Dy Maurice's occupier may have claimed squatter rights, but he was not protected by them.

* Criminal trespass (eg the Romanian gangs)

The criminalisation of squatting will not impact on this kind of behaviour, as this activity is already illegal under Section 7 of the Criminal Law Act 1977. The police were powerless to act, not because of any particular rights claimed by the group, but because the alleged Displaced Residential Occupier was not available to contest the alleged tenancy agreement.

* Trashing of property, vandalism and anti-social behaviour: A property sitting empty and falling into ruin will attract trespassers intent and able to carry out acts of vandalism regardless of whether trespass is a criminal matter or not. Squatters tend to greatly improve the propreties they inhabit, to the benefit of the property owner and local community.

There are an estimated 80,000 empty residential properties in London alone. Squatters look for longevity and minimal interference. Subsequently they will target places which are long-term empty and often in a state of dereliction. Squatters, contrary to the stereotypes promulgated by the press, most often bring these properties up to a state of functionality providing tangible social and economic benefits to the local and wider community.

Squatters, through the reutilisation of slack space, have contributed far more effectively to society than they are given credit for. By taking direct action against homelessness, squatters have saved the taxpayer money by unburdening the state; by creating new spaces for artistic experimentation and development, squatters have directly contributed to Britain's identity and a £2bn a year arts industry; by occupying buildings as a form of protest, squatters have carried on the great British tradition of direct action, drawing attention to a number of pressing social concerns, such as the profound lack of affordable housing.