The social and environmental benefits of squatting

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1 7 March 2012 Claudio Cattaneo (Research and Degrowth) The social and environmental benefits of squatting Keywords: squatting, urban sprawl, housing, speculation The squat community is the informal space where squatters find mutual support through social organization and sharing of knowledge, tools and work. For major cities, which can be proved unsustainable, the impacts of the squat community from the sustainable household perspective can be said to be positive, in social and particularly in environmental terms. The squat community is affected, like the majority of its citizens, by the housing question. The squat community contributes positively to sustainable housing both from the social and particularly from the environmental perspective. 1 Introduction Real-estate speculation and urban sprawl are unsustainable (Davis, 1990; Hall, 2003; Harvey, 2003; Martinez-Alier 2003). For cities like Barcelona, where the real-estate sector is concentrated within a very limited number of enterprises and banks and where an immense amount of homes are left empty -often in a state of abandonment- society at large can benefit from the appearance of squatted buildings and, eventually, of a squatting movement. However, the number of squats with respect to the number of available homes for squatting is very limited and, as a consequence, the benefits to society are only marginal while the potential for sustainable housing is great. This limited number is due to several factors, among which are the repression cost of squatting -which in many countries is subject to the Penal Code- and a often adverse public opinion which is shaped by the image mass-media give of squatters. I have observed the phenomenon, from the perspective of an insider of the Barcelona squatting movement (Cattaneo, 2008). The squat community is affected, like the majority of its citizens, by the housing question. The squat community contributes positively to sustainable housing both from the social and, particularly, from the environmental perspective. 1.1 Social perspective Although the Spanish Constitution defends every citizen's right to a dignified housing, in the Barcelona metropolitan area, average monthly rent increased from 355 Euros in 1999 to 617 in 2004; other figures

2 Claudio Cattaneo, Research & Degrowth show that between 1996 and 2003 the overall price increased 241.5%, while overall costs increased only 200% (land price increased by 718.9%; other costs by %). This has contributed to an increase in margins of 729.8% (Recio, 2005). At the same time, home loans increased exponentially, thanks to a decrease in the interest rate, so that it is common to get a 50-year loan or even a secondgeneration one. 80% of participation of Catalan banks in non-financial institutions are into real estate enterprises (Recio, 2005). At the same time, interest rates, after having touched their minimum in 2003, which contributed to the loan boom, are now slowly increasing. In the decade across the new millennium, all financial institutions increased their profits at a rate of 16-20% per year; the same as the annual increase in house prices. VPOs (public housing plans) have decreased dramatically over time. (Taller contra la Violencia Inmobiliaria y Urbanisitca, 2006). Few data can show the impact of the real-estate boom in Spain (Taller, 2006) which can be represented in a multidimensional space. The following graph shows the evolution -from before the 1997 real estate boom to year of six factors related to the housing question. Fig. 1 Visual representation of the housing question in Barcelona (Source: Cattaneo, 2008). 1. % homes not for rent 6. % cost of land/final home price % homes not VPOs Years of working-time equivalent to pay for a home Ratio of bank credit: real estate/industry credit 4. Average debt of a home For most citizens, after the collapse of the housing sector and the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008, the situation has not changed for better because public intervention has been diverted away from the support of citizens to the benefit of banking institutions affected by the financial collapse. As a consequence, many citizens are losing their home for having failed to pay their mortgage (see for instance while those who are paying rent are, on the other hand, still paying very high prices with still a too high number of abandoned dwellings. For the rest of Europe, the number of vacant conventional dwellings over total dwelling stock varies a lot across countries -for example 3.4% in the UK; 6.3% in France; 8% in Germany; 20.7% in Italy; 21.9% in Spain (Dol and Haffner, 2010). With such a large potential availability of homes, how is it possible that Page 2 funded by the European Commission in FP 7 Project No

3 The social and environmental benefits of squatting housing is a major question? How can there be homes without people and people without homes? This is a major issue claimed by the squatting movement. This, far from abolishing private property, is seeking the right of using empty and abandoned buildings for a dignified housing. Squatting satisfies the basic housing need in an alternative way to the use of the housing market -whose structure is, moreover, that of an oligopoly and not competitive at all. The squatting solution to housing is also alternative to public housing schemes which depend on government spending: because potential homes are not a scarce resource, there could be no need to spend tax-payers' money in further supplying them, issue particularly relevant in a time of crisis. Provided that a certain squatting ethic is respected -for instance only abandoned building or those that are property of a real estate enterprise or of a bank can be targeted (Cattaneo, 2008)- the provision of housing can be enlarged sufficiently without the use of the market, nor with the spending of tax-payers' money. The social benefits of squatting that I have studied for the Barcelona context can be also enlarged to other European-wide urban contexts. Also for those cities where public housing schemes work better than in Spain, or where the housing market structure is more competitive and less concentrated, the squatting phenomenon can be beneficial for its capacity to optimize in an efficient way the use of available resources. The squatting phenomenon is a self-organized way to make an efficient use of resources that are otherwise left unused or unproductive and which consequently limits the market demand for housing and the pressure on governments for housing policies. 2 Environmental perspective Squatting constitutes the re-use of abandoned buildings which would otherwise be left abandoned, or destroyed. From the environmental point of view it avoids the energy and material costs associated to the provisioning of new or re-furbished dwellings which have a long pay-back time in terms of improved energy efficiency of the new building. Old buildings, which constitute the target of squatters, are not energy efficient however, it can be shown that if a squat can survive long enough, energy efficiency can improve in the medium-term (see for instance Cattaneo and Gavaldá, poster Squatting can therefore be seen as an immediate housing action with very little overhead costs and the potential to become more environmentally efficient in the medium longterm. Cattaneo and Gavaldá (2010) also show, for two squats on the hills of Barcelona, interesting energy efficiency figures mainly based on renewable and human energy. One reason to explain this performance can be found in the achievement of low-impact living that the squatting movement often seeks. There is a connection between the Do-It-Yourself philosophy of the squatting movement and the low-impact means that are employed. Finally, the perspective of rural squatting and of neo-ruralism -which are in part focussed on a return to traditional rural and communal lifestyles and where primary activities are developed contributes to release the housing question by releasing housing pressure from cities. 3 Conclusions An important characteristic lying behind the social outcome and environmental performance of the squatting movement is the imaginary of a general transition required at many levels towards a social and political re-organization, where autonomy and collective-decision-making are key. This transition could be developed either from the bottom-up or through bottom-bottom networks of a squatting movement whose activists understand the housing question as an opportunity of efficient resource use and independent from capitalistic housing markets or expensive state intervention. Page 3

4 Claudio Cattaneo, Research & Degrowth 4 References Scientific References Cattaneo, C. and Gavaldá, M., The experience of rurban squats in Collserola, Barcelona: what kind of degrowth? Journal of Cleaner Production 18, Other Documents National Cattaneo, C., The ecological economics of urban squatters in Barcelona. PhD Thesis, UAB- Barcelona Cattaneo, C. and Gavaldá, M., Auto-producción y autonomía energètica: el caso del Centro Social Okupado Kan Pasqual. Poster presented at the Second International Conference for Degrowth, Barcelona, Recio, A., Les claus del negoci de l habitatge. La veu del Carrer, setembre-octubre Barcelona Taller contra la Violencia Inmobiliaria y Urbanisitca, El cielo está enladrillado. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra. International Davis, M., City of Quartz. Excavating the future in Los Angeles. New York: Verso Dol, K. and Haffner, M., Housing Statistics in the European Union 2010, OTB Research Institute for the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology Hall, P., The sustainable city in an age of globalization In Fusco Girard et al. (eds.), The Human Sustainable City. Aldershot: Ashgate Harvey, D., City and justice: social movements in the city.in Fusco Girard et al. (eds.), The Human Sustainable City. Aldershot: Ashgate Martinez-Alier, J., Urban unsustainability and environmental conflict. In Fusco Girard et al. (eds.), The Human Sustainable City. Aldershot: Ashgate Websites last accessed on February, 14th Page 4 funded by the European Commission in FP 7 Project No

5 The social and environmental benefits of squatting The information in this document reflects the author s view and is provided as is. No guarantee or warranty is given that the information is fit for any particular purpose. The user thereof uses the information at its sole risk and liability. This work was done as part of the RESPONDER project and is published on behalf of its European Consortium. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/ ) under grant agreement n (RESPONDER, Join the RESPONDER community today by registering at Page 5