At 4am this morning [jan15], police and bailiffs raided and evicted the Town Hall squat, the Corner House 2. At that time, there were 10 people living in the squat, and a further 10 rough sleepers sheltering in their night shelter. All these individuals have now been made homeless again, down the to actions of the police and bailiffs.
Since opening, the squat has been providing an efficient shelter service – opening at 10pm and closing the following morning at 10am. It provided beds, hot food and support to people who were sleeping rough. With support from a number of support services, and a large network of volunteers, the squatters were also doing nightly outreach patrols round the city centre – checking in on people sleeping rough.
In the absence of the council being able to provide meaningful and dignified nightshelters for rough sleepers – let alone deal with the root causes of the problem – these squatters took matters into their own hands. In the face of a worsening homelessness crisis, they shouldn’t have been evicted – especially on one of the wettest nights of the year. Full solidarity from GMHA to the squatters, and shame on whoever it was that made the decision to evict. Empty buildings should be repurposed for housing needs now!
