Yesterday just after 1pm, while over a 150 people rallied outside the police entered the North Star Squat and removed the half a dozen squatters inside. The Anti-Poverty Committee had demanded that Sam Sullivan, the mayor and leader of the Non-Partisan Association (NPA), meet with the squatters by 1pm Tuesday afternoon to talk about the NPA’s promise to buy one hotel a year and convert it to social housing. Sam Sullivan, the mayor of a city well-known for the large number of people forced to sleep on the street every night and the huge lack of affordable housing, cowardly refused to speak with the squatters.

About 30 police officers marched down the street and entered the hotel to remove the squatters while the crowd outside screamed “Homeless people under attack, what do we do: Stand Up, Fight Back.” The crowd then followed the police wagon up Hastings to the police station while drumming and singing a warrior song. The squatters were released from police custody around 5pm.

This is only the beginning of an escalating campaign for social housing. Next Tuesday we take the fight to City Hall…