Description: Sue Hall interviews GC who is breastfeeding her baby Scarlet. She speaks about how she was evicted from her home and how her living situation in the squat is chaotic and the place itself is in a state of insecurity due to the Council evicting squatters. She does not work at the moment with a young baby and receives money from social security.

Sue then asks Peter about his situation, who is living in the squat with his 11-year-old son, after moving from Australia to study. He says that he and his wife were forced to separate due to economic reasons, as they have another younger child who could not be looked after sufficiently by London’s nursery facilities, meaning his wife could not take on work. She chose to move back to Australia with their baby. Nevertheless, Peter speaks about the sense of community cultivated in the squat where other people step in to feed his son when he’s working late and vice-versa.

Both Peter and GC speak about the precarity of squatting from the local council, to hostile neighbours. They are expected to be evicted soon and Peter mentions that he has already moved 3 times in 4 months which is affecting his son’s schooling. GC speaks about how B&Bs are not an option as they are a purgatorial space before real housing and they have to abide by the living standards of the B&B. “It doesn’t give an answer to your problem, it prolongs it.” Even social housing says it’s better to squat. They both complain about the state of the country, from the mismanagement of people’s tax, the housing crisis, transport crisis while remarking that Moscow has a better public system despite being seen as a less developed country compared to the UK. GC remarks that the council are behaving like “feudalistic landlords”, choosing to rip homes apart and gut them instead of housing people within them.