Squatters

Homelessness is one of the biggest injustices in our modern world. There's no reason for people to not have a roof over their head other that the property rights of owners who don't do anything productive with the buildings they own.

Let me share with you what happened in my country in July of last year. Five young ladies in the city of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, all students and all looking desperately for a home, were informed that a house had been empty and unused for more than five years. They then took it upon themselves to break into the premises and make it their home on 20 July 2021. They immediately sent a letter to the owner, informing him that they now live in his house. Here's the letter, loosely translated:

We want to inform you that we are the new inhabitants of this premise since 20 July 2021.

We've been informed that the premise has remained empty for a long period of time.

This is of course wasteful in this time of home shortages.

We'd also like to let you know that we will take care of the premise as if it was our own.

We would like you to inform us of any concrete plans you have for the premise, if and when you have any.

We will then work with you to find a solution, preferably to the benefit of us all, so we may avoid going to a court of law.

We are open to contact and any communications you may address to our lawyer mentioned above.
_{source: Rijnmond (in Dutch)}

The owner however was not amused, and two weeks later he violently entered the premises and chased the ladies out into the street. He had already called the police but chose not to wait for their arrival, broke the windows, climbed in and chased away the startled and frightened students. The usual response to such a story is something like this: "Serves them right, filthy squatters. If it was my place, they'd not even last two hours instead of two weeks."

This is an example of two basic rights colliding with each other; the owner's property rights and the right of every human being to have a place to stay, as stated as part of article 25 of the International Bill of Human Rights:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
_{source: International Bill of Human Rights}

And yes, in most cases the property rights prevail, which is why we see in many cities the strange phenomenon of having more empty houses an buildings than there are homeless people. Here in The Netherlands we had an official right to squat, and owners still have an obligation to prove, with the needed permissions, that they have concrete plans with their buildings before the State can order the police to evacuate, with force if necessary, the premises. Because there's also the right to have a place to live. And when politics, the economy and all other systems that supposedly safeguard our most basic of rights all fail, when there's no affordable housing provided, and when houses stay empty for years, squatting becomes a viable option.

In my city, Groningen, we still have the biggest squatters address in The Netherlands; the Old Catholic Hospital that was supposed to be demolished to make place for new luxury houses. That place is now a fully legalized squatting-address and currently houses some 250 individuals, students, artists, activists and so on. It also has some alternative businesses that could never survive without the rent-free living provided there, like little veganist shops and so called give-away-stores. It's a beautiful thing and well maintained by the inhabitants as you can see in the cover picture.

Anyhow, I just wanted to share this with you to provide some background information before you watch the below linked video about an American Democratic-Socialist politician who takes on a Fox News host about this subject among other things. If you're on the right wing of the political spectrum, like Fox News, you'll always fall on the side of property rights and owners and believe it's the owners' right to just leave his property sitting there, unused, while people are homeless. I hope this short post has given at least some arguments for letting people's right to have a place to live prevail instead...

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy!