4thought.tv

I was made redundant in March of this year 2011 after being employed for only 7 months in a job hit hard by the current climate. Prior to this, I was out of work for nearly 3 years, once again through redundancy. The reccession has hit hard in the business I work in and there is no future prospect. I am a home owner living on my own who is now behind on mortgage payments and in danger of loosing her home of 12 years. Through all this I am now suffering with anxiety and depression, having to take medication. At the moment I have a home, for how long? I am not sure, I really feel for thoses who are without and also believe every one needs a home.

Outrageous, mention that sometimes live without water/electricity. Implying thats not always the case. Who pays for that those "rich" landowners who pay there council tax and pay income tax to fund some peoples ill thought out life plan. Everyone has to pay to live, its a face of life and those that don't I can't understand why they seem to think they have a right not too. There are plenty of people that aren't rich that still pay to live due to having morals!

They are just criminals trying to justify their crimes by saying its everyone's eleses fault. That women should put herself in that person shoes and see how she felt about a random stranger stealing and living in your home.

I hope the Police now know where she squats, arrests her and the other squatters.

This film isn't about the right to a home, this is about someone who is taking something that isn't hers. A few people squatting in the 1%'s properties isn't going to change anything. How about putting that effort into helping campaign for everyone's right to a home, not just her own.

Tell the people who have found themselves forced out their homes by squatters that all squatters only squat in buildings owned by property developers. We've all seen it in the media - it does happen. Of course everyone has the right to a home, but we all have a duty to provide a home for ourselves through honest means and if we genuinely cannot then yes of course our government has a duty of care. However, my issue with squatters is that by living in property owned by private individuals, they expect people they do not know to provide them with a roof over their heads when really, that person is not obligated to do so. We all need to play our part in society if it is to work. If you genuinely cannot work or find work, the government will step in, but if you are in the position where you are homeless do not force someone else to be homeless by taking their home away!

I belive evey body as the right to a home its about time pepole took note and do something about it

Everyone should have a roof over there heads! However there are some people who abuse the system that helps them and because they choose not to find work etc and move themselves up the ladder they keep houses that could be used for the latest victims of our recession. this recession has hit my family hard and who knows where we may be this time next year! We can only do our best. It does not help when you read stories of unemployed single mothers spending £3200 this christmas when so many of us have to choose, food, heat, light or gifts.

Catherine speaks 100% sense, it is disgusting that there are so many empty unused properties just because it "has" to have a price which many cannot afford, the conservatives are selfish beings where they want everything to be paid for even when they know that many will never be able to live a comfortable life because of being poor. Things need to change now because every human being deserves at a roof to live under.

its staggering that people come to London and pretend they are performing some social service whereas in fact they are just a drain on honest workers !
I worked very hard to buy a modest home ,it may well be that many people have more than me , good luck to them . I am happy to work for what i have ,the lesson is that the squatters could get a job , pay tax ,then perhaps really deserving people could be looked after rather than millions thinking they deserve benefits just because its easier than working ...oh and yes , i am English , i am older and i still pay tax and pay for my childs education !

She says these property developers are a blight on our country and this may be true. I don't know her circumstances, but life is what you make of it. Its very likely her and her friends are a blight on our country too. None the less should squatters have rights? yes, like everyone else they have rights. Work with society and they'll get them. I was unemployed for a year and made ends meat. I retrained as a care assistant and am doing OK. Should anyone have a right to another persons property? With respect, No.

What a load of rubbish - regardless as to whether those homes are empty or full is not down to Catherine to decide whether they should be occupied. The decision as to this is down to the person who has worked hard to make the money to purchase the house in the first place. For someone just to move in and take the place over amounts to the same as theft. Instead of just taking over the local government should be looking to purchase these empty / unoccupied properties and then utilise them for the homeless. If I choose not to drive my car it does not mean that someone else can come along and drive it! Get a life and face reality!

My elderly mother lost her home this year. Rising costs of mortgages and living expenses caused this. And in her days as young single mother has had to squat in an empty home. She is not proud of it bit at that time in the 60s 70s their were not as much help as it is now. I firmly believe there should be more housing, hostels, rooms etc to be provided for homeless out of luck people, who genuinly need a home. Their are far too many milking the system, and the genuine homless people are being left out. Although i agree their should be more housing i do not condone any sort of squatting. Just because some ine owns a property and let it out, or keep it empty does not mean they are well off rich people. They shouldnt have their properties invaded by anyone squatting. Their should not be any squatters rights! Its down to the government to create more housing instead of selling them off to provide, not the people who have more than one property.

Noone should be entitled to a free house whatever the situation. Does she think it's fair that I have to work 37.5 hours a week to live in my house when she does nothing all day? Of course squatters shouldnt have rights- they are criminals stealing other folks' houses.

Khareef 09 DEC 2011

I sympathise with the plight of the squatters, BUT they would have a much improved image if they mopped the floors, cleaned up the dishes in the sink and cleaned the windows HOWEVER in the main they leave garbage on the floors, rubbish in the sink and break the windows.

squatters ? ah you mean thieves with no regard for what doesnt belong to them and think the world owes them a living which is why most of them look like swampy !! the only reason catherine brogan is a squatter is because she chooses to be . she appears to be very presentable and speaks well ,so there is no reason why she shouldnt get a job and rent or buy a flat like the rest of us . What has it got to do with her or any other social dropout squatter, who owns the houses or how many ? i own quite a few but ive worked my nuts off to be in a position where i can enjoy the rental income or leave them empty if i choose to . They belong to me and ill do what i want with them , but one thing for sure is that i didnt get them given or break in and hide behind the stupid law that protects the criminals at the moment . Thank god the laws changing and who knows these scum might even drag themselves out of their wallowing self pity and join in the human race !!!!

What can I say to improve upon what Catherine has already said? She basically said very clearly the situation for many British people. "Well done Catherine". We live in a country where Money and this ridiculous housing market, has become more important than the actual people who live here. The whole financial system and housing market that has been created for the rich to get richer for the last 30 years, is shameful! Good luck for the future Catherine.

While I agree that everyone should have access to shelter. I do have a problem with the examples given re "rich boys", "the Queen" and "the Church". The politics of envy doesn't get any of us anywhere. Council housing stock is about to be sold off on the cheap again ... reducing the availability of social housing for people who fall on hard times. As a tax payer - it really annoys me that we all sit back and watch the Government sell off the housing safety net for people all over the country - allowing people who have benefitted from that support to buy those homes on the cheap and sell them for a large profit in the future - THIS IS WRONG. I don't agree with squatting, but I do understand why some people go down that line. When I was a younger, white, male and facing homelessness - I went to the Council for support and was turned away - not female, not in danger, not from a "disadvantaged" community (the language of that time, not pregnant or living with a disability .... it's time we told politicans that we expect a social support net - but to start managing it more effectively and stop them selling it off for political gains at the expense of humanity and charity

Yes everybody has the right to a home, but I totally disagree with squatting, you cant take what´s not yours, and the "rich" who own the properties, as she calls them, have worked hard and paid for what they own. Therefore they own it and its not up for grabs, for anyone to take. There are ways, laws and procedures in life, like it or not, otherwise the world would be a free for all lawless society. I think squatting should be a crime with prison sentences.

Well said Catherine, i am lucky enough to have a home, but to see all these empty homes, thousands upon thousands just sitting there left to rot is a disgrace, squatters are not all addicts, as the media and the government wan't us to think, it makes me sick to see people, families broken up because they have no home they can live in, squatters can actually help properties stay standing, anyone that thinks different are one of the sheep that believes what the media and government spew out of their mouths..!!

while I completely agree that there are far too many buildings lying empty in the country and it is nonsense that the government are wanting to build new homes, I don't agree with breaking into someone's property and not leaving just to make a point. Squatting has been around for centuries and being done by an increasing number of people in westernized countries whether through housing need or to make a political statement. Some people, who do it for housing need help to get housing but those who do it to make a point are going about it the wrong way. Then there's those who are doing it for a free place to stay and nothing else.

I try to put myself in others' shoes, so if I were a property owner, for example; my partner and I worked long and hard to buy a derelict property with the dream of slowly converting it into a business and home only to come round one weekend, eager to start work and to find people have broken in, changed the locks and are living in our property, I would be fuming. I don't see that as being particularly fair or right, I worked and paid for the property, I have a plan for it and a dream to make it into a business and home. What right does another person have to break in and live there? And, in England, squatters have rights. I mean, seriously?

If I were made redundant (which, incidentally, I have recently been) and had no prospects of another job, behind in rent and eventually lost my home. I would certainly not consider taking another persons property. What gives me the right to steal from someone else? Just because I'm not physically taking something away doesn't change the name from stealing.

I was lucky to have managed to get another job this time round but it's not as if there are no jobs. I have friends who have been made redundant and been unemployed for some time, complaining that there are 'No jobs anywhere' I disagree. Some people are too picky about the work they do and where they do it.

Although you can never tell what you would do until you're in the situation I can't understand the mentality that some people think that because they have a statistic like '1% of the population own 70% of the land' it gives them the right to take what isn't theirs. If I buy a house, a brand new, fully furnished house, ready to be lived in, with my own money and board the thing up so no one can ever get in that's my choice. Ok I would be being a total ass (and personally I would never do it) but that's my prerogative.

What I would suggest is maybe going to the owner and suggesting a use for the building, work with the owners to get actual homeless people into these places temporarily. There may be owners who tell you to jog on but, again, that's their prerogative.

Squatters remember, the owners may be companies, wealthy people living in the Carribean but could also be an average joe and jane who have scrimped and saved to get that place. You did say that squatters only squat in buildings that are genuinely unoccupied and owned by people who have vast swathes of property. I think that's nonsense. Do you think that Mr X, who's been made redundant, can't pay his mortgage, family have left him, he's homeless and comes across a boarded up house. Is he fussy if the owner has 10 properties in his portfolio or if his mum has just died and he's waiting to get it sold? No, I don't believe he would think twice.

I can see her point and what she's fighting for and I admire that but the way she's going about it is nonsense and shouldn't be tolerated but it should be considered and she (and others like her) should be working on a solution not working on getting themselves a free place to stay.

I agree that everyone has the right to a home, but they DO NOT have the right to squat in a property that in law belongs to someone else. It is effectively stealing - if you saw someone steal a woman's purse on the street because they didn't have any money, would that make it okay? No. This Catherine Brogan is hardly making a good case for herself in saying "I'm just living in some rich boy's building" - it doesn't matter who owns the damn thing, the point is she doesn't. How about she goes about getting help/living in a hostel for a while, or get herself a job to buy her own house instead of taking over someone else's, that they have worked hard to buy? Another point, how does she know who owns these houses she's squatting in? She must be partaking in a fair bit of voyeurism to be sure that nobody lives in whatever house she's stolen, which is a whole other crime in itself. Sorry, not getting a sympathy vote from me. Unlike a great many homeless people, this woman doesn't appear to have had any real misfortune to make her homeless or to keep her so, she just appears to be a lazy squatter who can't be bothered to earn herself a home.

Also, I'll just put it out there, I'm not a Conservative supporter, so don't dismiss me as just another Tory bigot.

yes it should be band them houses she squatting in people own they should get aressed i own my flat i live in but the one above me has squatters in and i cant beleave the way they treat the flat wev had windows smash niddles in our garden if u stand in one room you can here them jacking up why do they spend money on drugs and drink they flooded me out 35 times and wev called the police out 25 time all we get it thay have rights to yer right theirs words i wanna use but cant you can get houseing benifits you just have to stay in shellter for a bit i know this iv been homeless and i know that you will get housed ok it might not be 1million pound house but its a safe place so yer i think thay get aressed for this

she needs her head testing i would love to talk face to face to her thay can bye phone nice clothes what with our money no they shop lift lick the take our gas and water errr makes me mad she need locking up

There are a lot of people in this country who shouldn't have homes, either because they lazy and don't work hard enough to deserve homes. Secondly, there are a lot of people in this country who simply don't belong here and are talking advantage of the support system we have created for our citizens. Finally, as you may have guessed I am a capitalist, however I do believe there should be ceiling for the rich, this would free us a lot of property for the truly needy.

Miss Catherine,
Squatting someone else property can not be acceptable. Why ? well because it belongs to someone else who has worked hard to earn the ownership of that property. In todays world, very few things are for free. Food is a basic right that everyone should be entitled to, yet stealing food is not acceptable and is pinished by law. How comes you have been squatting for 3 yrs in London ?? Do not tell me that you can not get any job (you seem like a bright girl) ! I think squatting for you (like many) is convenient cause no responsibilities (until now) and so there was no incentive to come out of it. Well maybe you will no and play your part in the society like everyone else !!! Taking, what does not belong to you in any shape or form is wrong and should not be tolerated. Well done the coalition !!

I myself am suffering through a very hard time. Catherine may be you can net work, get a job, and rent an apartment.Some day this earth will be a paradise and everything will be perfect.

I myself am suffering through a very hard time. Catherine may be you can net work, get a job, and rent an apartment.Some day this earth will be a paradise and everything will be perfect.