South Londoners are sleeping outside in hammocks and tents after a council called police to boot them out of an abandoned care centre they’d turned into a squat.
The squatters were ordered to leave the ex-residential care building in Lewisham by officers on Friday September 1, or face arrest.
They say they are priced out of the London rental market and were staying in the empty building on Slaithwaite Road to avoid becoming street homeless.
But Lewisham Council wants to turn the property, known locally as House on the Hill, into affordable living and a work space with the help of London businessman, Simon Higgs. Mr Higgs runs the V22 Foundation, a not-for-profit arts group that provides affordable work space, mainly in South and East London.
The council confirmed it worked “in partnership with the police” to take back the property from the squatters.
But the building’s former residents are calling on the council to let them return and say they will continue camping outside the property until they are allowed to do so.
Speaking from a makeshift camp erected outside the centre on Wednesday September 6, one of the squatters, Biribá, 25, said: “On Friday (September 1), the police knocked on the door and my friend tried to speak to them through the letterbox. They said ‘you have to leave and take all your stuff’.
“There was a bit of a scuffle outside and we didn’t know what we were going to do. On the first night we didn’t manage to get all our stuff and within 12 hours some of our stuff was damaged and stolen. We’ve been here since.”
Biribá said that some of the people squatting in the building had an unclear immigration status, meaning they could be kicked out of the country by the Home Office. As a result, some of the ex-residents have now fled to insecure housing elsewhere in the capital.
He added: “Nobody is in stable housing. People are spread across the city and we have between six and seven people sleeping here between the tents, the beds and the hammocks.”
In 2021 Lewisham became the UK’s first borough of sanctuary, meaning it pledged to welcome and protect the rights of all migrants. Part of the delivery of the strategy included a commitment to provide the same level of service to refugees and migrants as any other resident.
The squatters feel the eviction isn’t in the spirit of the Labour council’s borough of sanctuary pledge.
As well as being allowed to return to the property, the squatters are demanding the council provide them with storage for their belongings and put a stop to evictions across the borough.
They also want the council to open up empty council-owned buildings to the homeless in the borough, as well as people living in Home Office accommodation.
The median monthly rent for a room in Lewisham was £750 per month as of March, according to the Office for National Statistics. In 2019, the median rent for a room in the borough was just £575.
Research from housing charity Shelter published in January revealed there were 7,300 homeless people in Lewisham.
This figure includes people in temporary accommodation or sleeping on the streets.
A Lewisham Council spokesperson said: “House on the Hill is a previous residential care facility in Lewisham, which we are intending to convert into affordable living/work space for the local community.
“We are working on this project with our partners V22, who currently run three community libraries in the borough. The building was recently occupied illegally by squatters who gained entry in the brief period when the property was unoccupied.
“This is a Lewisham Council owned public property and we have had to act swiftly, in partnership with the police and within clear legislation, to protect the council’s assets.”
The Metropolitan Police was contacted but directed enquires back to Lewisham Council.
