Most homeless are 'life-style squatters'

London: Only a tiny minority of squatters are genuinely homeless, academics said on Monday. Their report found that 6 per cent of people without a roof over their heads turn to squatting on any given night.That would equate to 106 of the average 1,768 who sleep rough.

Given an estimated squatter population of 20,000, that means only one in nearly 200 was homeless.

The report says the majority of those who force their way into unoccupied property are in fact ‘lifestyle squatters' — only a very few of them act because they are homeless. Instead they can be motivated either by politics, by wanting to be part of a gang or simply through wanting to avoid paying rent.

The figures, produced by researchers at Sheffield Hallam University and published by the charity Crisis, come at a time when the government is considering criminalising squatting.

Tory MP Mike Weatherley describes squatters as "an internet-savvy, well-organised, often menacing group, on the hunt for a cosy billet".

The MP for Hove and Portslade said on Monday: "The idea that squatters are homeless people is incorrect.

"We have to stop this perception that squatting is a desperate act by the homeless and vulnerable. It is not. We should do more for the vulnerable in society. But that does not give anybody the right to take over anyone else's property."

He added: "Squatting is an anarchist choice and a choice against society."

Beggar or trickster

A beggar fleeced a widow of £35,000 (Dh199,450) after she started giving him money on her way to and from work.

Sukhvender Deo told Bridget Macedonski he was homeless and needed a few pennies to get by. Thanks to her job as a legal secretary she was happy to hand him spare change to help out. But those acts of kindness led to her being relentlessly hounded by Deo who in fact had a home and only wanted cash for drugs.

He intensified his campaign when he learned Macedonski's husband Alexandru had died sucking her dry of her inheritance. She even remortgaged and moved house so she could pay Deo.