Squatting in Amsterdam

Amsterdam is famous worldwide for its liberal attitudes. Amongst its residents, it is more known for its shortage of housing. In the past decades, this problem has been solved by squatting. Nearly everyone I met in Amsterdam lives, or had once lived, in a squat. But with the social and political climate of the city changing, the attitude to squatting is also changing; to the disgust of some people, there is now an Anti-Squat movement. I have always seen squatting as having outsider connotations – the bucking of an unfair system, a political statement, cockroaches and blocked toilets, dodging the police. But in Amsterdam it’s different. People live in squats for years, they are homes, their occupants legally registered with the government and paying the local version of council tax.

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