criminalising the vulnerable

8/6/2019 Criminalising the Vulnerable

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Criminalising the vulnerableWhy we cant criminalise our way out of a housing crisis

SQU SHSquatters Action For Secure Homes

Photograph:TomHunt

er

WomanReadingaPossessionOrder1997

A parliamentary briefng

18 May 2011


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Te Ministry o Justice has announced it intends to launch a consultation on proposals to criminalise squatting(England and Wales) in May 2011. Squatting has a long history in the UK, and is a common response to housingneeds, especially in a time o housing crisis.

Tis brieng presents a preliminary analysis o the implications that the criminalisation o squatting may have.We argue that at a time o government cuts to rontline public services (including housing), cuts to housing benet,rising house prices, and a corresponding rise in homelessness, the proposed criminalisation will:

SQUASH (Squatters Action or Secure Homes) is a volunteer-run campaign looking to raise awareness on theimpacts o the proposed criminalisation. We are keen to work with others to provide resources towards the achieve-ment o secure housing or all.

Introduction

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A brieng on the criminalisation o squattingSQU SH

- impact adversely upon some o the most vulnerable people in society

- empower unscrupulous landlords and property speculators- burden the justice system, police orce, and the public purse

http://www.squashcampaign.org

General enquiries: [email protected] enquiries:[email protected]

el No. 07415 516 105

SQU SH

Squatters Action For Secure Homes
http://www.squashcampaign.org/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.squashcampaign.org/


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Housing costs exploding

As more and more households join the queue or ahome o their own, the numbers o people on local au-thority housing waiting lists have nearly doubled since1997 to around 5 million. Te lack o social housingmeans that increasing numbers o would-be owners are

remaining in the private rental sector, causing demandto outstrip supply in many parts o the country, notleast London where over the past year rents havesoared by 7.3 per cent and will soon hit 1,000 permonth on average. Around 10 per cent o all rent isunpaid or late. Companies specialising in helpinglandlords to evict tenants say that evictions relating torent arrears rose by 12 per cent in 2010 compared to2009. Rising ood and energy bills, alling incomes,increased economic insecurity and the associatedreduced access to credit mean or growing numbers o

people a weekly battle to keep a roo over their heads.

Repossessions and arrears

Large numbers o households can simply no longeraord their mortgage, arrears are rising and high levelso repossessions look here to stay or many years tocome.

Crisis o house building

House building was already deemed by governmentto be too low prior to the nancial crisis, but since2006-7, house building completions in England haveslumped dramatically to their lowest levels or nearly90 years.

First-time buyers locked out

Despite a 25 per cent average all in house prices since2008, unaordability remains endemic because mostrst-time buyers cannot raise the 25,000 deposittypically needed to get a mortgage at aordable rates

in the new era o risk-ree lending.

Cuts to Housing Benet will increase Homelessnessand Rough Sleeping

More than 42,000 households are ocially homelessand 50,000 are living in temporary accommodationand in priority need in England alone. But the hiddenhomeless gures could be closer to hal a million be-

cause, according to Crisis, the vast majority o home-less people exist out o sight in hostels and reuges, bedand breakasts, squats, unsatisactory or overcrowdedaccommodation and on the oors or soas o riendsand amilies.Te Coalition governments controversial cuts toHousing Benet threaten to make this situation alot worse. An estimated 88,000 households will bebadly aected by cuts to Housing Benet and parts oLondon and the South East will simply become una-ordable or low-income households. Mass displace-

ment is likely. Te cuts pose particular concerns oryoung single people renting in the private sector asadults between 25 and 34 will no longer be eligible orthe 1-bed allowance and will instead only be allowedto claim the Shared Accommodation Rate. Housing

proessionals in local authorities and the voluntarysector are warning that these changes will increasehomelessness.

1. Te Housing Crisis Were in

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Where these cuts take place they will pull away the saety net omsome o the most vulnerable amilies and individuals in our society

and will inevitably lead to an increase in homelessness.Campbell Robb, Chie Executive, Shelter

NorthLondonsquat,Box

ingDay2008


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According to the European ypology o Homelessnessand Housing Exclusion (EHOS), squatters are onegroup who make up the Hidden-Homeless: peopleliving rough; people due to be released rom institu-tions who are at risk o homelessness and peopleliving in insecure accommodation (squatting, illegalcamping, soa surng or sleeping on oors, staying

with riends or relatives).

For the homeless in particular, squatting orms a keysurvival strategy. Te most recent academic study(May 2011) o single homeless people commissionedby Crisis ound that o 437 single homeless peoplesurveyed, 39% had squatted.

Tis corroborates a study by the same academic authorin 2004 that more than one in our homeless peoplehad squatted as a direct response to a housing crisissince leaving their last settled home.

Te notion that squatters are somehow a group apartrom the homeless is simply alse. It not only contra-dicts all academic research on homelessness, but alsothe basis o housing law according to Section 58 othe Housing Act 1985, every squatter is deemed to behomeless. Statements such as those by Mike Weather-

ley quoted above are grossly irresponsible and serve toentrench dangerous myths about those who squat.

We ask the Government: where will the hiddenhomeless move to in this time o austerity?

Once we accept that squatting and homelessness areintertwined, and that we are living in a period o risinghomelessness, it is clear that criminalising squatters

would only worsen the problems aced by people whoare being hit hardest by the governments cuts and the

present housing crisis.

Instead o addressing the causes o inadequate housingprovision, the government is seeking to criminalise theinormal sector, which threatens to urther marginalisethe most vulnerable.

A dangerous lack o evidence

At the same time, however, there is a lack o hardevidence about the scale o squatting and the make-upo the squatter community. Te Government currentlyestimates that the numbers o squatters in the UK tobe 20,000, but it is likely that this is very conservativeand there is no source or this gure. Te Governmenthas conrmed elsewhere that it does not hold inorma-tion centrally on the numbers o properties occupiedby squatters.

2. Homelessness and Squatting: How Criminalisation Will Afect Vulnerable People

I wish to dispel the myth, once and or all, that squatters andhomeless people are one and the same.

Mike Weatherley, MP or Hove, 2011

Contrary to the common perceptions o even those working withhomeless people, squatting is in act a common way in which theyrespond to a housing crisis.

Crisis, Lie on the Margins, 2004


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3. Protecting Ordinary Home Owners or Big Property Speculators?

Myth #1: Squatters are locking amilies out o theirmain homes.

Recent media coverage and government pronounce-ments that have preceded the consultation on crimi-nalisation have portrayed squatters as a threat to ordi-nary peoples homes. Te typical newspaper story tells

the sad tale o a home owner returning rom holiday tond their primary home squatted. Commentators andgovernment sources in turn eed o these high prolecases to cement alse perceptions about todays squat-ting phenomenon. For example Te Daily elegraph,quoting a senior Whitehall source, claimed that KenClarke, Justice Secretary, has had enough o seeinghard working home owners battle to get squatters out[emphasis added].

But just how accurate is this portrayal o both squat-

ting and its victims? Te growing media assault onsquatting would suggest the above practice is rie.However, there is simply no reliable, systematicallycollected and veried evidence base to tell us whattypes o properties are being squatted, where, whoowns them and what their current use is. Te Ministryo Justice has certainly not provided any adequate evi-dence to support its claims about home owners beinglocked out by squatters.

Tere is, however, a large body o anecdotal evidence

which suggests that such instances are in act extreme-ly rare. For example, essa Shepperson, a Landlordand enant Solicitor: Anyone unortunate enough to behomeless and looking or somewhere to squat is not goingto try somewhere which is being lived in. In act that is

probably the last place they would choose. Tey will bewanting somewhere they can stay long term and will notwant any hassle with ( or example) outraged returningdog walkers.

In the absence o hard evidence, do we believesensationalist media stories and headline grabbing

politicians, or solicitors and proessionals workingin the eld on a day to day basis?

Myth #2: Further criminalisation o squatting isneeded to protect the resident home owner

Lost in the current debate about squatting is the actthat the law already adequately provides mechanismsor both residential and non-residential property own-ers to evict squatters rom their homes. Both displaced

residential occupiers and protected intending oc-cupiers have the right to orce entry i they nd their

property squatted. It is already a criminal oence or asquatter to reuse to leave in such circumstances. Te

police can intervene and squatters ace arrest.

Non-residential property owners who regularly usetheir properties can seek an Interim Possession Order(IPO) within 28 days o the date when the ownerrst knew, or ought reasonably to have known, thatthe respondents were in occupation. It is a criminal

oence to ail to leave the property afer 24 hours obeing served with an IPO. Statistics disclosed by theMinistry o Justice state that only one person was

prosecuted in each year between 2007-2009 or ailureto comply with an IPO, which suggests that they areeective in removing occupiers.

Te persistent use o the term home owner ratherthan property owner by much o the mainstream me-dia and MPs spearheading the push towards criminali-sation, reveals what appears at times to be a concerted

eort to obuscate the issue. Much o the time, cover-age ignores the existence o adequate legislation whichprotects displaced residential occupiers and protectedintending occupiers, whilst attempting to characterisenon-residential and commercial owners who leave

properties empty as acing the same type o injusticeas residential home owners. Why is this happening?

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We believe that a number o myths are serving to conuse the issues,

exaggerate the problems and create a pretext or legislation that isnot needed, but is in the interests o large private property owners.


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Empowering absentee owners to keep their propertiesempty would come at the expense o squatters and thehidden homeless who could be bringing some o theestimated 651,993 empty properties in the UK backinto use, securing housing or themselves, maintainingempty buildings, and running social projects.

Paul Palmer, who has worked as an Empty PropertiesPractitioner or 20 years, and advised over 200 au-thorities, states that: Over the years I have visited overone thousand empty homes and spoken with hundredso owners...I have been inside dozens o homes occupiedby squatters, and they all had one thing in common,they had been improved...We are talking about longterm abandoned buildings, vacant in some cases or ten

years or more, in the heart o Mayair, and the middle osleepy old English towns. Buildings that are abandoned

by their owners, where proessional and ethical squattershave sought out an owner, and when one is not ound,have taken up occupancy and started to repair the build-ing. Is this to be classed a crime?

Secondly, criminalisation threatens to seriously erodeprotections tenants have against unscrupulouslandlords. Any removal o section six would mean theempowerment o non-residential landlords to use vio-lence to gain entry, and thus threatens an increase inillegal evictions. Unscrupulous landlords may exploit

this change to wrongly classiy tenants as squatters,and enact evictions themselves without having to seekpermission rom the courts.

Removing this process rom the civil courts reducesthe accountability o landlords. Instead o judgesreviewing the evidence to determine possession,responsibility would be placed onto the police (shouldthey arrive i conict were to arise rom a situation) todetermine whether or not an occupier is a tenant orsquatter.

Potential ormulations o the new crime o intentionaltrespass could have similar impacts, particularly in theresponsibility it grants the police to determine an oc-cupiers status as tenant or squatter. Any ormulationo a new crime o trespass is likely to impact negativelyupon tenants, posing serious implications which theMinistry o Justice will need to explore.

It is mistaken to assert, as Mike Weatherley does,that the removal o section 6 would only impact onsquatters and not tenants aced with unscrupulous

landlords. Tis is a serious implication o the proposedcriminalisation o squatting which has by no meansbeen adequately addressed by the Ministry o Justice.

Boosting the Commercial Property Sector: the realagenda?

Te answer almost certainly lies in governmentannouncements that they are investigating a potentialreorm o Section 6 o the Criminal Justice Act 1977

and the potential creation o a new crime o inten-tional trespass.

Under Section 6, it is illegal or anyone to use orthreaten violence to gain entry to a property isomeone inside is opposed to their entry. Tis protectstenants against illegal eviction (and intimidation) bylandlords seeking to evict outside o due legal process.

Rather than seeking to urther criminalise those oc-cupying properties with residents already in them

which as we have explained above is not necessary itappears that Ministers are in reality examining ways toaid non-residential property owners - specicallycommercial property owners. Tis is clear rom thestatement by Crispin Blunt, Conservative MP orReigate, and Parliamentary Under Secretary o State(Prisons and Probation):

Section 6 o the 1977 Act states that it is an ofence or aperson to use violence to enter a property where someoneinside is opposed to their entry. Te ofence was designed

to stop unscrupulous landlords om using violence toevict legitimate tenants, but its existence has led somesquatters to display so-called section 6 notices on the dooro properties notiying the property owner that it wouldbe an ofence or him to break back in...One option thatwe have been considering, thereore, is whether section 6could be amended to give non-residential propertyowners the same rights as displaced residential occupi-ers to break back into their property. We think that thatwould efectively render section 6 notices meaningless.

Te proposed law change, both in terms o the re-moval o Section 6 and in the creation o a new crimeo intentional trespass, is indiscriminate. It threatensto empower non-residential property owners (many o

whom are companies) who purposeully leave proper-ties empty or nancial gain through aiding tax avoid-ance, speculating on property prices, degrading a listedstatus, and so on.

Tis has two very worrying implications:

Firstly, aiding commercial property owners to keep

their homes empty will undermine sel-help housingsolutions to homelessness.

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Any consideration o criminalising trespass has to

take into consideration how it will be enorced andwhether this will involve the police.

Article 8 o the Human Rights Act 1998 stresses theright o individuals to not be deprived o their home

without due legal process o a democratic society.Te possibility o evictions without recourse to civilauthority would make it impossible or an individualshuman rights to be taken into consideration whenconsidering a case. Tis could mean that the police orother local authorities could be liable to suits ollow-ing this alleged breach o human rights, or could evenmean that civil cases would need to be heard beoreany eviction could take place, the same situation astoday.

A key issue when considering the criminalising otrespass is who will act to enorce this and on whatbasis.

I it were possible or landlords to evict with orce (ashas been suggested by Mike Weatherley MP) then

there would be serious implications. Landlords and

other property owners leave themselves open to seri-ous criminal charges such as assault and actual bodilyharm, should they be encouraged to undertake evic-tions themselves. Secondly, the potential or landlordsor police to evict tenants (who are protected by theProtection From Eviction Act 1977) on the claim thatthey were squatters, is a serious risk. It would beunreasonable to expect the police to be able toinvestigate and establish whether the property wassquatted or not, yet i it were to be reerred to the civilcourts then the resulting process would not be verydierent rom the current situation.

Any proo needed by the police to demonstrate asquatted property (and not one occupied by licenseesor tenants) is unlikely to meet the standards o a civilcourt, and thus be open to a claim under Article 8.

Any attempted eviction by police ocers will require asubstantial amount o police time and resources.

who provide support or vulnerable people exposed torooessness and associated criminality. Any new law

with this eect will burden these services enormously.Some o those who have successully developed mid tolong term sel-help housing solutions will have accessto legal and peer-network support to cope withcriminalisation. However, a majority o those who

would be criminalised wont have access to support,and will suer greatly. Te costs o such social

problems are incalculable, and would all nanciallyon ront line public services and thereore the tax-

payer.

Te proposed criminalisation o squatting threatensimmeasurably increased cost or the public purse.

Immediate costs or a criminalisation law wouldinclude the cost o rehousing squatters, and the cost oevictions (including legal costs o organising

prosecutions).

Tis threatens an increased demand or housingbenet, at a time when its provision is being cut.

Te signicant hidden costs would have dramaticimpacts on the capacity o ront line public services

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4. Enorceability

5. Afordability


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