Seattle: House squatted and evicted

Puget Sound Anarchists reports that activists from the Cal Anderson Community in Settle recently occupied a vacant building on December 16 and it was found empty by cops on December 18 when homeless people were again evicted from the park in a sweep which happens monthly.

Press release from December 16:
Activists from Cal Anderson Community occupy vacant building while facing sweep; demand a stop to sweeps and housing for all

Facing an eviction notice for 7:30 am Wednesday morning, dozens of housed and unhoused activists occupied a vacant house at 1006 East Denny, on the Northeast corner of Cal Anderson Park. At 3:30 pm Wednesday, these members of the community, which has formed over the past six months around Black Lives Matter and homeless advocacy, dropped a banner stating “Housing Is a Human Right!”
[Read More]

Seattle: Police Sweep Mutual Aid Soup Kitchen, Black Bloc Returns Fire

In the morning hours of Tuesday September 1st, Seattle Parks Department and Seattle Police initiated a sweep of unhoused people staying at Cal Anderson Park and the soup kitchen and community center set up in and around the previously abandoned (and now repurposed) shelter-house at the center of the park. Police pushed people out of the area surrounding the shelter house, making several arrests and claiming the park was closed while people could be seen working out and walking their dogs on the other side of the field. Seattle Police also confiscated a cache of shields, as well as spike strips. Seattle Parks employees confiscated tents, clothes and camping gear, only to throw them in a garbage truck, while snacking on food donated for the Shelter House and unhoused people with Seattle Police. Several arrests were made.

[Read More]

Seattle: Rent Strike

Around the country, as people lose their jobs and wonder how they will pay their rent or mortgage, the words rent strike are being heard more and more. This website https://rentstrike.noblogs.org/ will serve as a resource for how to make a rent and mortgage strike a reality in Seattle. Check back for more resources for how we can refuse to pay together.
Have a resource to share? Want to send us your own declaration of rent strike? Get in touch: rentstrike [at] riseup [dot] net

Why Strike?

In this moment, millions of people are being faced with the reality of being unable to pay their bills. Countless people who live from one paycheck to the next have lost their jobs and income already and have no way to make April’s rent or mortgage payment. Even under normal circumstances, people in Seattle have been struggling to pay rent for years, with rents that are 93% above the national average. It should come as no surprise that in this moment, people simply cannot pay.

Some are calling on the state and federal government to put a moratorium on rent and mortgage collections. If this happens, great. If it does not, this changes nothing. We still can’t pay, so we won’t. Banks and landlords should not be able to continue profiting on renters and mortgages when there is no way to earn money. That’s just common sense. If we can’t make money, neither can or landlords, neither can the banks. [Read More]

Los Angeles: A dozen vacant homes reclaimed by unhoused tenants as calls for rent strike grow across US

On Saturday, March 14th, a group of supporters mobilized to defend several families, who launched an occupation of a two-bedroom bungalow in the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Calling themselves “Reclaimers,” these new residents are demanding that housing owned by the California Department of Transportation or Caltrans, which for decades has laid vacant, be used to house the houseless in the face of the growing COVID-19 outbreak and continuing housing crisis. The group is inspired in part by Moms 4 Housing in Oakland, California, who led a successful housing occupation in January. [Read More]

Seattle: Autonomous Tiny Home Village Pushes Back Eviction to March 2020

Report from Stop the Sweeps and Demand Utopida Seattle on the recent pushing back of an eviction of an autonomous self-organized tiny house village.

Seattle Deputy Mayor Mosley has promised that the village will not be swept and may remain on the current site through March 2020. The City has secured a commitment from the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) that they will not try to remove the houses, which they claim to own. He expressed some concerns about whether the budget outlined by the village will be adequate, wants the village to commit to allowing case managers to work with residents, and says there are some other details to be worked out, but it is a relief to everyone to have this overview agreed upon. The residents will now be responsible for coming up with the funds to cover utilities and other operating costs which are estimated to be $27,000 through March 2020. If you are so inclined to donate, please follow this link here.
[Read More]

Seattle (USA): Condo Excavator Sabotaged

About a little over week ago we snuck into a condo development in Seattle and poured a gallon of bleach into the gas tank of an excavator. This was a small but easily reproducible attack against the expansion of gentrification in Seattle. [Read More]

U$A : FBI agents raid homes

Repost from ‘Green is the New Red’ about raids on three Portland houses during the morning of Weds. July 25th. One house had been vacant for years, one had been a well known activist house, and one may have had anarchist squatters. The crime being investigated is unknown. Apparently grand jury notices have been distributed to a few people in Olympia, Seattle, and Portland.

As I’ve been reporting on Twitter, there have been multiple homes raided and grand jury subpoenas issued in Portland, Olympia, and Seattle.

Three homes were raided in Portland, by approximately 60-80 police including FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force. Individuals at the homes say police used flash grenades during the raid.
[Read More]

United States: Initial actions in solidarity with Oakland rebels

Several immediate actions that we know about have taken place in Minneapolis, St. Louis, Atlanta, New York City and Seattle in solidarity with the rebels in Oakland, hundreds of whom were arrested and many injured during a long series of clashes with the police on January 28. More actions have been publicly announced, others may take place unannounced; we will of course continue to post any actions that take place in the coming days.

Much love and war to the Oakland rebels.
We are with you.
[Read More]

Seattle: Informal Update On Situation

The Turritopsis Nutricula house (named after an immortal jellyfish), located on 23rd and Alder in the Central District of Seattle, has now been in existence for a month. Within the span of that same month, over a dozen squats have also sprung into existence in as diverse places as Bellevue and White Center. One of them has recently set up a screen printing studio. An informal network of people from Occupy Seattle consistently brings food and supplies to the house on 23rd and Alder. The food is free for everyone who comes through the house.

This account is the personal reflections of one irregular resident of the Turritopsis Nutricula house and does not reflect the collective as a whole.
[Read More]

Seattle: News about Tent City

As the working poor and homeless in Seattle experience the aftershock(s) of the current ‘economic boom’, a large group of homeless youth, women, men & children are responding to the growing need and shrinking options for one to find a safe place to sleep.

As area shelters run ‘at capacity’ each and every night, and hostility toward poverty, homelessness and shelter grows throughout the City Council and community, homeless folks have created what is known here locally as Tent City 3. [Read More]

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Seattle: Squatters’ week of success ends with impasse

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  SQUATTERS’ WEEK OF SUCCESS ENDS WITH IMPASSE – LANDLORD RENEGES ON AGREEMENTS

After a successful building take-over on Sunday November 28th by anarchists, “The Squat” at 914 Virginia Ave, housed activists all week who were in town to protest the WTO. After six days a deal was made with the owner and all the squatters left without incidence. [Read More]

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Squatting in Seattle

Two articles from the Seattle Times, from 3 and 5 december 1999:

Anarchists: They play by different rules
by Jim Brunner, Seattle Times staff reporter

These are the anarchists’ house rules: no graffiti, no drugs or alcohol, smoking allowed only on the roof. And no violence – at least not inside the Seattle building occupied by dozens of them since Sunday.

Outside is another matter. Authorities say the hooded youths who seized two floors of a building at Virginia Street and Ninth Avenue may be among those responsible for the spree of smashed windows and slashed tires that marred what many protesters hoped would be a week of peaceful demonstrations against the World Trade Organization. [Read More]

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