The squatter activist group, Reclaim Croydon, was claiming a victory today after a judge threw out an application to have them evicted from the long-vacant “Fun House” site, under the Croydon Flyover.
House of fun: the former restaurant turned into a theme bar was closed earlier this year. Squatters moved in last month
Reclaim Croydon have turned the unused premises into an emergency winter shelter for the homeless which they’ve called ACAB: Autonomous Café and Bookshop.
But Basegate Ltd, the real estate firm that served notice on the squatters last week, had its case thrown out by Judge Graham Keating.
According to those who were in Court 12 at the Altyre Road law courts this morning for the Basegate Ltd v The Unknown Persons Illegally Occupying… case, “The judge decided that the papers served on the ACAB by the owner were so bad that they had to be served again.”
The case has been adjourned until at least next Monday.
“That’s great because it means the ACAB won’t be evicted this week and we can continue supporting the community,” a member of Reclaim Croydon said.
Growing support: Reclaim Croydon’s battle to provide homes for the homeless is receiving widespread support
“Reclaim Croydon had a victory in court today. While we will celebrate now, it’s only a temporary victory. The threat of eviction, perhaps as early as next week, is still there.
“Whether we win in court or not we will not stop reclaiming Croydon. Absentee landlords can chuck as many poorly drafted eviction papers at us as they want. We won’t stop occupying their buildings to provide solidarity and mutual aid.”
It’s increasingly obvious that Reclaim Croydon is stepping in and providing emergency shelters where Croydon’s cash-strapped council, under Tory Mayor Jason Perry, is failing.
Croydon Council could not answer questions about their provision for rough sleepers when this website asked them at the start of this month for which public buildings would be providing “warm spaces” going into the coldest part of the winter.
It wasn’t until December 11, after a week-long cold snap with nighttime temperatures frequently below zero, that the council’s propaganda finally managed to issue a press release outlining its pitiful efforts. What they have produced looks like something scrambled together as a hurried afterthought.
In total, around the borough, there are just 28 places offering some kind of refuge from the cold during the day time. The list is so shamefully brief that the council omitted it from their press release, and has buried the detail on its website – so entirely useless if you are living on the streets, or perhaps an elderly person struggling with heating bills but doesn’t know their way around the interweb.
The council’s offices, Fisher’s Folly, are not included on the list. Indeed, under council CEO Katherine Kerswell and Mayor Perry, the nightly soup kitchen run by charity Croydon Nightwatch has been forced off the sheltered forecourt outside the offices.
That absence of a warm welcome from Croydon Council is replicated on their list of warm spaces.
The list includes several churches, Selhurst Park football stadium (one day a week), and just one of the council-owned leisure centres (Waddon; although Greenwich Leisure are also opening up the café they operate in Ashburton Park).
The majority of the borough’s public libraries are on the council’s list, but most of them are in any case only open two or three days each week.
The most warm welcome appears to be from a volunteer community group, the South Norwood Community Kitchen on Portland Road, which is open for up to five hours on five days a week.
According to Perry, who is paid £84,000 per year as Croydon Mayor and lives in the £1million mansion near Lloyd Park, “We are grateful to all the local organisations who are opening their doors to support people during this time.” Part-time Perry failed to offer any explanation as to why his council is doing so little, and so late.
Meanwhile, the Reclaim Croydon squat under the Croydon Flyover remains open to provide shelter for at least the next week, and to receive donations of food, clothing and other materials for the homeless.
Read more: Activists provide shelter to 40 people who have been ignored by council
Read more: Reclaim Croydon’s free bookshop and café closed by bailiffs
Read more: ‘Disgrace’ as £110m of Brick by Brick homes stand empty
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