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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/19/gary-neville-squatters-rage-housing-homelessness
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| Gary Neville’s kind gesture on squatting highlights growing rage over housing | Gary Neville’s kind gesture on squatting highlights growing rage over housing |
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| What do a former Manchester United player and the pope have in common? Quiet at the back: both have better opinions on and approaches to squatting than the current government. | What do a former Manchester United player and the pope have in common? Quiet at the back: both have better opinions on and approaches to squatting than the current government. |
| Gary Neville succeeded in winning over half the country, and even the most fervent Manchester City supporters, this weekend after telling homeless squatters who’d taken up residence in the former stock exchange building he owns that they could stay for the winter. Not just that, he’d help them find homes as long as they allowed access for the staff developing the building, owned by Neville and Ryan Giggs, into a boutique hotel. | Gary Neville succeeded in winning over half the country, and even the most fervent Manchester City supporters, this weekend after telling homeless squatters who’d taken up residence in the former stock exchange building he owns that they could stay for the winter. Not just that, he’d help them find homes as long as they allowed access for the staff developing the building, owned by Neville and Ryan Giggs, into a boutique hotel. |
| A crackdown on squatting by the coalition government painted the practice as a lifestyle choice by young anarchists who have the disposable income to rent. As with so many Conservative policies, the research doesn’t bear this out. On any given night 6% of homeless people squat and 40% of homeless single people do so regularly. Research indicates that squatters are also significantly more vulnerable than the general homeless population: 34% of homeless people who squat have been in care; 42% have physical ill health or a disability; and 41% report mental ill-health, compared with 19%, 27%, and 32% respectively of the homeless population who have not squatted. | A crackdown on squatting by the coalition government painted the practice as a lifestyle choice by young anarchists who have the disposable income to rent. As with so many Conservative policies, the research doesn’t bear this out. On any given night 6% of homeless people squat and 40% of homeless single people do so regularly. Research indicates that squatters are also significantly more vulnerable than the general homeless population: 34% of homeless people who squat have been in care; 42% have physical ill health or a disability; and 41% report mental ill-health, compared with 19%, 27%, and 32% respectively of the homeless population who have not squatted. |
| Even ignoring the humanitarian cost of criminalising squatting during a housing crisis, it’s impossible to look at the statistics on empty buildings and not feel a sense of rage. In England alone there are an estimated 726,238 empty buildings, which could house a total of 1.8m homeless people. Put simply, by banning the practice of abandoning buildings or legalising squatting, the country could solve its homelessness crisis overnight. | Even ignoring the humanitarian cost of criminalising squatting during a housing crisis, it’s impossible to look at the statistics on empty buildings and not feel a sense of rage. In England alone there are an estimated 726,238 empty buildings, which could house a total of 1.8m homeless people. Put simply, by banning the practice of abandoning buildings or legalising squatting, the country could solve its homelessness crisis overnight. |
| Instead we’re faced with a situation where a young apprentice can come to London in the hope of finding a job, struggle to find a home and instead end up in jail. That’s the price of aspiration – sleep on the streets or end up in jail: the rights of absent property owners are worth far more than your human right to shelter. | Instead we’re faced with a situation where a young apprentice can come to London in the hope of finding a job, struggle to find a home and instead end up in jail. That’s the price of aspiration – sleep on the streets or end up in jail: the rights of absent property owners are worth far more than your human right to shelter. |
| Related: Man United stars Neville and Giggs tell hotel squatters: stay for winter | |
| London’s rate of street homelessness rose 37% between 2013 and 2014. Meanwhile, Islington council, in north London, was forced to act to stop the slew of property investors buying new homes and leaving them empty, as asset lockers, with 30% of new homes purchased having no one on the electoral register. The two are directly linked: force up house prices, rents rise too, and so do arrears, which leads directly to homelessness. Try saving for a deposit on a flat when every day is spent begging for change for a hostel and enough food to live on. | London’s rate of street homelessness rose 37% between 2013 and 2014. Meanwhile, Islington council, in north London, was forced to act to stop the slew of property investors buying new homes and leaving them empty, as asset lockers, with 30% of new homes purchased having no one on the electoral register. The two are directly linked: force up house prices, rents rise too, and so do arrears, which leads directly to homelessness. Try saving for a deposit on a flat when every day is spent begging for change for a hostel and enough food to live on. |
| If people in Britain hoarded food or water, there would be riots in the street: housing is a slow burner, but the anger felt at the very obvious unfairness of the British housing system grows every day. The overwhelmingly positive response to Gary Neville’s gesture shows how much clamour there is for people to act charitably and to solve the housing crisis bit by bit. Protecting property hoarders at the expense of the most vulnerable people isn’t the way forward, when repurposing even a fraction of England’s empty homes could end street homelessness overnight. | If people in Britain hoarded food or water, there would be riots in the street: housing is a slow burner, but the anger felt at the very obvious unfairness of the British housing system grows every day. The overwhelmingly positive response to Gary Neville’s gesture shows how much clamour there is for people to act charitably and to solve the housing crisis bit by bit. Protecting property hoarders at the expense of the most vulnerable people isn’t the way forward, when repurposing even a fraction of England’s empty homes could end street homelessness overnight. |