London: Violent eviction of Autonomous Winter Shelter

Statement from the Autonomous Winter Shelter crew:

Following the violent eviction on 1st June 2023 by the Metropolitan Police, the Autonomous Winter Shelter collective, based in Shadwell, is taking a break from its public-facing activities after an incredibly busy seven months. We are all dealing with the consequences of this eviction differently, and some of us need time to recover both physically and mentally.

We are enormously grateful to everyone who was also a part of the project, supporting and defending it. There will be new, unseen opportunities to continue our work, and at the very least, to support people close to us, who we’ve met along the way. Everybody evicted has already been rehoused or found alternative accommodation. We need to keep showing up for each other when faced with the devastating consequences of inequality and injustice. As long as buildings lie empty and people require shelter, the need for all of us to take autonomy over our living situation will remain. [Read More]

Brussels: eviction of a squat of 7 undocumented people by the municipality of Ixelles without alternative housing

This Thursday, April 6 at 9am, the municipality of Ixelles evicted a squat of 7 undocumented people, applying an inhabitability order dating from October 2022, without any rehousing solution at the end. The squat located at 20 rue Élise had opened at the end of September 2022, in a building empty since 2017.

They are all ex-hunger strikers of the ULB (2021). This group of people had then lived (with other people) in a building in the See U thanks to a temporary occupancy agreement. But they were expelled at the end of September. So they sought refuge in this empty house. The irony is that they regularly work in the construction sector and have not yet won their fight to obtain papers: [Read More]

Amsterdam: Evictions continue, Squatting will too!

Another illegal eviction. Saturday afternoon we announced a new squat on Zeeburgerpad 22. Not much later we were forced to pack our bags and leave again. Thanks to the presence of a large number of friends outside, people inside managed to get away safely without getting arrested. But of course, no one is safe if they’re sleeping in the streets, so we’ll be back.
On the 18th of February, we made it public that we squatted Zeeburgerpad 22. Many people showed up to show support and protect the occupation.
We had already been inside for a week and had evidence of this. But as some of the members of our collective are in a vulnerable position we decided to force contact with the owner/ police by dropping a banner & speaking to the neighbours. It wasn’t the first time this place has been squatted, it was squatted in 2013 and again in 2018.
After the last eviction in 2021, some renovations took place but apart from that nothing much happened, the place remained empty. The daughter of the owner and Pablo ( the neighbour and owner of the company next door) showed up and provided us with some much-needed entertainment. [Read More]

Amsterdam: Statement about the illegal eviction at Noorderdwarsstraat 9

On the 24th of January, a squat in the center of Amsterdam got revealed by Autonomous Shelter, a squatted appartment on Noorderdwarsstraat 9. The same morning it got illegaly evicted.

This appartment had been empty since four to six years, according to the neighbors. The neighbours were all supportive, bringing us tea and chatting with us. The beginning of the action went really calmly. We provided cops with documents showing that we had been living there since the 21st of February, and neighbors told us they could indeed confirm our house peace if the cops asked them.

After over an hour of waiting we suddenly got the message that they would evict us and that we had 5 min to leave. 5 police vans appeared and suddenly 30 cops were standing in the small street. When we asked why they wanted to evict us they first stated “because squatting is illegal”. Only after, one of them told us it was for heterdaad, meaning that they claimed to have caught us in the act.
This is total bullshit as all our documents and the statements from the neighbors showed that we had house peace. [Read More]

Paris: Ambassade des Immigrés squat evicted

This morning, Wednesday 19 September, at 4:30 am the Ambassade des Immigrés squat was evicted in violence. There were as many police officers as inhabitants.
Women, men, children, sick and handicapped people were awakened by the doors of their rooms being crushed by the CRS, police and gendarmes. While the people were being evicted, nearly fifteen cop trucks blocked Saulnier Street and the neighborhood. The inhabitants of the squat were not able to recover their belongings or the papers they kept in their rooms…
If we didn’t believe promises, there was no way to anticipate the violence, the repression and the illegality in which the inhabitants of the Ambassade des immigrés were evicted this morning.
The current emergency concerns 6 people who were rounded up when their names were on the list of people to be housed and who are currently being held in administrative detention. They are detained on rue de l’Aubrac at the police station specialized in the arrest of undocumented migrants. These 6 people risk being sent to the CRA (Centre de Rétention Administrative) and deported to Eritrea, Sudan and Mali.

We demand their immediate release without conditions! [Read More]

Amsterdam: Squatted hotel Rembrandt evicted

Squatted hotel Rembrandt was evicted on the 15th of October 2022. The eviction happened after only a few days of occupation. According to the court the building was unsafe to reside in. This decision was made in our absence, we were not given the ability to present evidence in our defense and no inspection had taken place.

Even though the biggest part of the building is safe to live in and the stripped part had been closed off, the court decided to evict without a hearing. We wonder if it has something to do with the extremely expensive lawyers of the owner?

The police came by on the 14th of October to announce that we would have to leave, our lawyer confirmed they made this decision and going into high appeal would not call off the eviction. They gave us 3 hours to pack our stuff.

Autonomous Student Struggle (A.S.S.) called for a demonstration in front of the building, to protest against this ridiculous verdict to protect the landlords of the city from homeless students.The police decided not to show themselves until the next morning when they evicted us with their special forces. Resistance ensued in the form of barricades, the occupants could escape before being captured. The owner hired private security to stand in front of the door for the rest of the day. [Read More]

Utrecht: squatted floors on the Oudegracht 106-108 illegally evicted

Utrecht (Netherlands) – Late Saturday evening the police nevertheless proceeded with an illegal eviction to protect the interests of the owner Caron Realestate & Management BV.

Earlier in the day, squatters had announced that they had been using the upper floors for several days.
In response, the police responded accordingly, and an officer of justice explained to the owner that a procedure will be initiated, that he could file a complain and have his arguments for a possible urgent case reviewed by the investigation judge.
This is a new procedure to get squatters out of a property faster that went into effect on July 1, 2022. [Read More]

Groningen: Kraaienest lives!

Groningen (Netherlands) – Kraaienest squat in Groningen lost the appeal and had to be out within three days. A quick end to a six-month period that was more than worth it. But we’ve only started.
Kraaienest at the Spilsluizen in Groningen has been evicted. On Tuesday morning, 5 July 2022, the verdict of the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court in the appeal proceedings was announced. We had to leave within three days with the threat of a fine of 10,000 euros for every day we stayed (plus 4500 euros in legal costs). The reason was that Stichting Valquest had sold the property to the real estate company LMJD B.V. before we came to live there, even though the real estate company had not yet explicitly announced its concrete plans. He wanted to start renovating immediately, so that “there would be no more actual vacancy”. When we won the preliminary relief proceedings in January, the court in preliminary relief proceedings found that there was no urgent interest to evict, and that our living interests temporarily outweighed ours. Now a ruling has been given against this decision. What interests are we talking about? The only interest for the real estate speculators like Joshua Camera and all those other capitalists who would have a vested interest in this is to make money that they already have enough. That is not an interest, that is profiting on the backs of others. Our interests are our lives and the struggle for justice. This capitalist logic of property has almost put us on the street. We already knew that the courts protect private property, so we are not surprised. It does not make us any less angry. [Read More]

Seville: CSOA la Leona illegally evicted by force and without court order

After several months of collective work and some very intense weeks preparing the space, on Thursday May 19th it was finally time to make it public and open the space to anyone who wanted to get closer and get involved. Many people came to show their support and joy. There was finally a Self-Managed Squatted Social Center in Seville, after so many years.

We didn’t lose our cool when the police approached, as we were prepared to face the situation, with about a hundred people nearby, with the assembly well organised and united, including a mediator and a lawyer. We told the police that the building had been occupied by us for weeks, so they would need a court order to evict us, which they obviously didn’t have. [Read More]

London: “Fuck the bosses:” evictions exceeded by new occupations by Autonomous Shelter Network

The eviction of the winter shelter on Gray’s Inn Road on April 7th and 2 other longer-lasting squats in London have lead to approximately 5 more locations being opened and brought back into use by houseless and precarious persons to provide food, clothes and shelter within our community. The disused buildings were occupied and activated by mixed collectives of former rough sleepers, anarchists from the NFA Queer Punx, Amsterdam-based Anarcha-Feminist Group, and members of Resist Anti-Trespass.

The buildings form part of the Autonomous Shelter Network – a mutual aid, mutual respect association dedicated to direct housing and the provision of food and necessities. It is an affiliation of non-hierarchical, horizontally organised groups that are self-organised by community members without the state, business or charities. The locations and exact number of residences has not been disclosed to protect the residents privacy. The shelters are self-organised by residents who determine set and organisational style amongst themselves, with one shelter’s motto being “fuck the bosses”. [Read More]

Florence: a week of resistance on the roof of the Corsica 81 squat, “lift the siege of our neighborhood”

The occupation of the building of Viale Corsica 81 in Florence continues and resists. After the eviction on 15 March, on 5 April, the social centre in Rifredi was reoccupied, with some people now on the roof for 7 days.
There is a permanent solidarity gathering in the street, but also a constant presence of the police. However, the neighborhood responded with solidarity for the occupiers, despite the militarization of the streets. Some residents of Viale Corsica also passed on a message in which they explained that they welcomed the return of the occupants. “They came back and we are happy. They returned to the abandoned building of Viale Corsica 81, after the eviction that had left us with enormous sadness, they returned and left us alone, we left them alone. We used to see this building full of life. Lift the siege of our neighborhood. » [Read More]

London: “Don’t worry, we’re autonomous”. Winter shelter evicted

Around 30 people have been evicted from an autonomously organised shelter in North London. At 9am on Thursday 7th April agents of the National Eviction Team and notorious eviction magnate Andrew Marsh, smashed their way through barricades to enforce a High Court writ despite repeated attempts by the occupiers to enter into dialogue with the property’s owners, OneHousing, to negotiate a peaceful and orderly handover.

The former St. Mungo’s hostel on Grey’s Inn Road has housed a community of vulnerable adults since it was squatted in December last year, including a woman six months pregnant with twins and many people who the care system has categorically failed to support through the winter. The eviction comes only days after the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol for London was activated, with freezing temperatures predicted for later in the week. There are no planning permission requests logged with Camden council for the property, and it will now most likely remain empty until its inevitable conversion into unaffordable housing. [Read More]