The State Is Failing the Homeless

It was on a Tuesday morning some weeks ago that three of us nervously stepped into the waiting courtroom. Even before the trial began, things had already started to go wrong. Fearing disruption of the proceedings from noisy protestors, the judge had restricted entry to one ‘McKenzie friend’ (a non-legally qualified representative) and two others. The colourful ensemble who had turned up in support from Occupy Exeter, including Bonzo the Public Repossession Clown and ‘General Assembly’ in his military garb, were left awaiting the verdict in the corridor with baited breath.

This was not the first case we had seen that day. Immediately before had been the possession proceedings for the original encampment of Occupy Exeter on Cathedral Green, which the General Assembly had decided not to contest. Instead, we had chosen to move on to our second site, an empty building abandoned several years previously when the owner ran out of money to develop it.  From the start it was fraught with difficulties, like the lack of disabled access and the worrying creaking sound whenever you tried to ascend the staircase. These difficulties meant that in the end, Occupy decided not to fight the case in court as Occupy, but rather to allow those who wished to stay in the building to defend it themselves. For those who stayed, it soon became their home.

This was the cornerstone of our legal case. Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects, among other things, the right to a home. Importantly, this right can be invoked whether or not the person claiming it lawfully possesses that home, so it has potential use for squatters and occupiers. There are also some tentative suggestions from recent case-law that it may be raised in court not just against the State, as was the original intention of the Convention, but also against private landowners.

Of course, if we had a right to occupy under article 8, the landowner also had a right to peaceful possession of his land. It was therefore the task of the judge to balance these two competing rights and, inevitably, the judge chose to favour that of the landowner. In his mind, it was an open-and-shut case of him owning the land, so could we please get off. We lost the case and were ordered to vacate the premises “forthwith”.

Nevertheless, despite his bravado in court, the landowner’s solicitor later praised the presentation and construction of our legal argument. Although the judge dismissed it as an irrelevant factor in the case, it remains a fact that Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a treaty which the UK has signed, gives the State a duty under International Law to provide access to adequate housing. Crucially, the UN Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has stated that economic recession is no excuse for failing to fulfil this duty and that, in fact, this duty “continue[s] to apply and [is] perhaps even more pertinent during times of economic contraction”.

A cursory glance at the news will tell you that the State is failing in this duty. Devon County Council has recently agreed to cut over 200 beds for the homeless. Westminster Council, instead of tackling the cause of the problem by providing better housing and welfare services, is planning to pass a bylaw banning soup runs for the homeless. Overall, reports the BBC reports, rough sleeping has risen by 23% in one year. While the same report includes a pledge from the government to give an extra £18.5 million to councils in order to help tackle rough sleeping, it also includes criticism from housing charity Crisis that current law may be failing single people who are homeless by not considering them a priority.

In light of this growing crisis, it seems at least the lesser of two evils to allow those without a home to shelter in abandoned buildings overnight, rather than to strictly enforce the landowner’s property rights with the result that people are forced to spend another night out in the cold.

Andy Marlow is an active member of Occupy Exeter