Squatters living in vacated East West Link homes earn week’s reprieve
UPDATE: INNER city squatters can stay put for at least another week with police powerless to move them on because of a Supreme Court injunction.
Law & Order
Don't miss out on the headlines from Law & Order. Followed categories will be added to My News.
INNER city squatters can stay put for at least another week with police powerless to move them on because of a Supreme Court injunction.
And a judge has already flagged that the squatters may have a right to remain in the properties that have been set aside for use by domestic violence victims.
Granting an initial interim injunction on Sunday Justice Clyde Croft said the eviction notices served on the squatters had acknowledged that they may have a right to the properties.
“Possession is something that common law has recognised for centuries ... the right to possession indeed seems to be recognised in these notices. Though where it ultimately goes of course is another matter,” he said.
Justice Croft also said he hoped the squatters weren’t simply kicked out on the street.
“I mean you would certainly hope that any relocation of this sort would be properly thought out, an integrated process, and not simply a matter of putting people out on the street,” he said.
More than 50 squatters are currently living in homes left empty by the dumped East West Link project but are now earmarked for lease by the Salvation Army for domestic violence victims.
Lawyers for the squatters will argue that they have a right to occupy the premises, and in relation to trespass allegations, that they have a legitimate purpose for being there.
They will rely on the Human Rights Charter and alleged failures by the government to afford the squatters procedural fairness.
Fourteen of the squatters, who are occupying 14 properties in Collingwood and Parkville, brought the urgent application to the Supreme Court on Sunday after being served eviction notices last week.
That injunction was extended yesterday until the matter goes to trial, or until further order, by consent between lawyers for the squatters and government.
Some of the squatters have already given evidence in court including Ngaru Grant who said he had been waiting 10 years to access public housing.
“I really want to pay rent in public housing, it’s not that I just want a free ride,” he said.
Monica Escobar said the squatters, who are homeless because of issues including mental health and domestic violence problems, had been unable to secure government housing.
A lot of the residents who are there now are there because they’ve spent months and months trying to access services and the services haven’t been able to help them,” she said.
“So its not just that we were given a list now and we’re suddenly trying to access services. People have been homeless for months, sometimes years, because services can’t do anything for them.
“That’s why they reside in the houses,” she said.
Victorian Housing Minister Martin Foley wants the squatters out.
“People have the right to pursue whatever legal opportunities they think are open to them. we will continue to work through those processes. We will continue to be advised by Victoria Police as to how they wish to handle any matter regarding returning those houses to the Salvos and to make sure homeless families can be housed,” he said.
The matter will return to court next week.