The long term consequences of squatting law

In 2012 squatting in residential building was made illegal – as the majority of properties people could squat in disappeared overnight, correspondingly the number of homeless people living on the streets of Bristol increased.

During Homelessness Awareness Week, Bristol24/7 is featuring the stories of people who have found themselves sleeping rough.

They have each have a very different story to tell, but their message is clear homelessness could happen to anyone, at any time.

Rich has been squatting for the past six months with 10 other people in “one of the few squats left in Bristol” – a derelict building in the shadow of Trinity Road police station. He lost his home after not paying the mortgage and has been squatting for the past four years but, as he tells Pamela Parkes, while part of the last few years have been an “adventure,” finding a way out of the cycle of homelessness can be hard.

“Residential squatting was made a criminal offence around two years ago and that has made it much more difficult – you can only squat in commercial buildings.

Commercial buildings tend to be either very derelict or just uninhabitable, or in good condition but secure and with a very interested owner, so you wouldn’t be able to get in and, if you did get in, you would only get a very short period of time. It’s not worth squatting when you only get a couple of weeks.

There are a limited number of buildings now that work in Bristol for squatting.

Most people living in Bristol will not been aware of the impact, but when the Free Shop was evicted on Stokes Croft (which was quite a big squat), immediately the number of people sleeping in the Bear Pit jumped and it hasn’t gone back down again.

So when you walk around and see a lot of people sleeping rough in the centre of town, two or three years ago they would have been living in a squats. They wouldn’t have been much fun to live next door to, but it was better than them sleeping in shop doorways for everybody.

‘It’s a good place to live’

Conditions here are pretty good here compared to other places. We don’t have any utilities apart from running cold water, but we are all used to living with that and coping with that and coming up with solutions. I’ve made a wood burning stove which heats my room, we have a gas heater which we can cook on downstairs…We get on very well with the neighbourhoods – we are very supported by the local community. It’s a good place to live.

I lived in Leigh Wood for a year in two stints – six months a time, both over the winter, I really messed that up. When you get evicted you have to live somewhere…The second time I did it we had a small community of us living out there.

If you are going to build your own shelter in the woods, live in it…and stay warm and dry, you have to know how to do it and work really hard at keeping everything together. It really drives you – because if you spend one day where you don’t cut wood you freeze that night and you suffer. There are more chaotic people around as well but the more organised people keep them together.

‘You all have to get along’

Squatting is both chaotic and quite tightly organised – if you are going to do it the way I do it and try to make a success of it you have to work hard, you have to be really on it.

You can’t squat on your own. You are forced to do it with other people whether you like them or not – you all have to get along. Legally if you squat a building you have got to stay in occupation so you need at least three people to maintain presence in a building at all times otherwise you risk losing the building.

Lack of affordable housing is definitely a part of it if there was more affordable housing the would be less homeless people, less people sofa surfing and fewer people crammed into a one person flat which is what people do to pay the high private rent.

I was renting from a friend and when that came to an end I did try to get a room in a shared house but I just wasn’t able to. You need a deposit, the rent in advance, you need to find the right place at the right time, you need reference from other landlords, you need to be in employment a a lot of places won’t take unemployed people – it just depends on what is around when you need it.”

To find out more about the awareness week and the range of services available to help those who find themselves at risk, visit www.bristol.gov.uk/homelessweek

Homeless Awareness Week will culminate in the annual sponsored Sleep Out, which is being organised by the BCAN Homeless Forum

More than 100 people are expected to take part in the event at the Pip ‘n Jay Church from 10pm on Friday February 27.

To report someone sleeping rough in Bristol you can use Streetlink. StreetLink is England’s only phone-line, website and mobile app that allows members of the public to send an alert when they see someone sleeping rough and connect them to local services. Call 0300 500 0914 or visit www.streetlink.org.uk