Squatting as Disobedience

With the current economic crisis, this seems set to become one of the more recurrent forms of civil disobedience. The "mouvement des sans abris" in France had already suggested ways in which the homeless might "illegally" claim buildings that were unoccupied, partly to deal with urgent housing problems for the homeless, but also to raise the profile of the issue. With the backing of structured groups, the point was one about the scandal of having so many unoccupied buildings and so many homeless at the same time, especially in the Winter.

The New York Times describes several ways in which Americans made homeless by the foreclosure crisis are moving into houses themselves made empty by the same crisis. "We're matching homeless people with people-less homes," as one of those involved described it. Some do so discreetly and without fanfare, but others with the backing of grassroot organizations like Take Back the Land (in Miami), do so openly, as "front door squats". Interestingly, some advocacy groups have also organized more explicitly civil disobedience oriented actions in which they refuse to leave their own homes after foreclosure. Language characteristic of civil disobedience (e.g.: "a modern-day underground railroad", "liberation") is also in evidence. And among those, some are clearly inspired by the language of human rights. For example, the New York Times mentions a group in Minnesota called the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign and another in Philadelphia called the Kensington Welfare Rights Union.

The police reaction seems to have been somewhat muted, generally a telltale sign that despite the obvious violation of the law, such actions are viewed by the community as having some legitimacy. The idea that it is for owners to complain and call in the police is a way of suggesting that in themselves such moves are not seen as violative of public order, although they may become so. Indeed although squats in the US have not at all reached the stage of forming comunities, there is anecdotal evidence that they have been relatively welcome in some neighborhods, especially when organizations such as Take back the land emphasize good neighborliness from the squatters.

On the one hand, the courts have traditionally sided with property owners, but on the other hand there has occasionally been recogntion of squatting as leading to de facto property. The article doesn't point at this, but this is obviously a quite global movement, although the particular focus on housing (as opposed to land) may be particularly Western and urban.