Solid Ground posted this update and photo taken from their office today to their Facebook page:
Fire across the street from Solid Ground’s HQ in Wallingford. The house has been used as a squat for some time; hopefully everyone got out ok. People should not have to illegally squat and live in dangerous situations in one of the richest cities in the world.
That house, along with the buildings that used to house Sutra and Sugar on Top, are all slated for demolition to make way for a new housing project.
I talked to some of the fire crew. No one was hurt. I thought it might have been caused by a squatter, but it was an electrical fire.
We should not have electrical fires in one of the wealthiest…erm…nevermind.
“People should not have to illegally squat and live in dangerous situations in one of the richest cities in the world.”
How naïve. These squats are almost always filled with discarded drug paraphernalia. Their drug use is of course not allowed at shelters and is why they can’t hold down jobs and resort to crime to feed their drug habits.
Yeah, but I think it’s much more naive to just dismiss drug addicts as being beyond hope, and “those people”. There’s a serious opiate epidemic in this country, and that attitude hasn’t done anything to help.
Various possibilities. Back in the ’80s I knew a couple people who were doing it – young, fairly clear thinking types with anarchist political leanings, nice kids in some ways. I’m not saying that’s typical, it’s just hard to know exactly what conclusions to draw from the existence of squatters.