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A FORMER housing advice office in London has been occupied by activists and turned into a community centre, it was announced yesterday.
The one-time Camden Housing Advice and Social Services building had remained empty and disused for the last three years despite requests by the local community to put it to good use.
A group of 12 campaigners secretly took over the site earlier this month and opened it to the public yesterday as the Camden Mothership community hub.
Phoenix Rainbow, a member of the collective that launched the initiative, told the Star that the project made “financial sense” as well as “community sense.”
“This is part of a national campaign to have empty buildings opened up for people to move in.”
Mr Rainbow added the group was following the example of Manchester activists who had been able to persuade footballers Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, as well as the council, to make unused buildings available to house the homeless.
The group argued that the building could have provided a £1.5 million profit for the council to reinvest in the community had the building not been left empty since 2012.
The initiative was supported by some local councillors and the Green Party London mayoral candidate Sian Berry.
Camden Council has warned the occupiers of potential court procedures to evict them from the premises.
The Mothership collective asked the council to “save money in court fees” and said it was “prepared to hand the keys back to Camden council with some assurance that the building will be used in the interim 1-2 years for community use.”
