{"id":11579,"date":"2013-03-25T14:17:42","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T14:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=11579"},"modified":"2013-03-25T14:18:51","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T14:18:51","slug":"squash-campaign-calls-for-repeal-of-section-144-anti-squatting-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/squash-campaign-calls-for-repeal-of-section-144-anti-squatting-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"SQUASH campaign calls for repeal of Section 144 anti-squatting laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SQUASH<\/p>\n

Housing rights group Squatters Action for Secure\u00a0Homes (SQUASH) have launched a campaign to repeal the Section 144 anti-squatting laws introduced in September last year.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Case Against Section 144\u2019, \u00a0highlights\u00a0major concerns that the legislation has already left homeless and vulnerable people disproportionately affected, with SQUASH positing that the existing\u00a0Criminal Law Act 1977 was already sufficient for dealing with squatters.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"squatting-section-144-4\"<\/p>\n

A report complied by the group provides a detailed six-month analysis of the effects of Section 144, and \u00a0sets their findings against the wider backdrop of the UK recession,\u00a0high homelessness rates and current housing crisis.<\/p>\n

Since the new law came in, three people have been jailed and 33 arrested, but all cases involved squatters occupying previously empty properties.<\/p>\n

And here’s the important bit: none of the arrested had displaced someone from their home.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andrew Arden QC, a leading expert on housing law, told The Independent that the new law \u201ccriminalises the most needy,\u201d adding:<\/p>\n

The only difference from the old law is that it wasn\u2019t criminal before, until you were asked to leave,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a superfluous law that criminalises action taken by the most needy whose housing needs are certainly going to worsen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"SQUASH<\/p>\n

Reaction to the SQUASH report:<\/p>\n

Squatting is what people do when they get desperate, it is not criminal behaviour.
\nSquatting rises when inequalities increase and housing is not treated as a necessity.
\nThis is a great report \u2013 every MP needs to read it.
\nProfessor Danny Dorling<\/strong><\/p>\n

This meticulously researched report confirms what we feared about the effect
\nof the new laws criminalising squatting. People are being made unnecessarily
\nhomeless and very vulnerable people are suffering as a consequence. This
\nlegislation was based upon prejudice and has only made matters worse. This new
\nevidence demonstrates so clearly the need to repeal this misguided law.
\nJohn Mcdonnell (Labour MP)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few months after the Government brought in the disgraceful law criminalising
\nthe homeless occupying an empty house we can see that some of the most needy are
\nindeed suffering in the way that we feared. This is a very useful report that should
\nmake people think hard.
\nBaroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer (Lib-Dem Peer)<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"SQUASH<\/p>\n

More info and\u00a0resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Discuss squatting laws on urban75<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Case Against Section 144 has been published by SQUASH (Squatters\u00a0Action for Secure Homes) who are campaigning against government\u00a0plans to criminalise squatting.\u00a0Online link to full report is here: http:\/\/<\/a> www.squashcampaign.org\/resources\/the-case-against-section-144-2\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Link to repeal section 144 petition: http:\/\/epetitions.direct.gov.uk\/petitions\/ 44597<\/a> \u2022<\/p>\n

\u2022 Kent Online story about homeless death outside of empty bunglalow: http:\/\/www.kentonline.co.uk\/kent_messenger\/news\/2013\/february\/28\/ frozen_man.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 Mike Weatherley (Tory MP) has tabled an Early Day Motion calling for an extension of the law to include commercial properties: http:\/\/www.parliament.uk\/edm\/2012-13\/912<\/a>
\n\u2022 A report by Homeless Charity, Crisis, shows that 40% of homeless people\u00a0have used squatting as a last resort to prevent sleeping rough. http:\/\/www.crisis.org.uk\/publications-search.php?fullitem=327<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 Six months, no jail sentences: call for controversial squatter law to be axed<\/a>\u00a0[Independent]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Housing rights group Squatters Action for Secure\u00a0Homes (SQUASH) have launched a campaign to repeal the Section 144 anti-squatting laws introduced in September last year. \u2018The Case Against Section 144\u2019, \u00a0highlights\u00a0major … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,194,193],"tags":[1191,10,19,84,570],"class_list":["post-11579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brixton","category-london-features","category-places","tag-brixton","tag-london","tag-protest","tag-squats","tag-squatters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/squatting-section-144-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-30L","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11579"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11590,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11579\/revisions\/11590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}