‘I am amazed at how they work together’
EX-RESIDENT TAKES THE M.E.N. INSIDE CONTROVERSIAL SALFORD SQUAT
STEP inside an abandoned GP surgery in Eccles and you’ll find a homeless squat operating like a tight ship.
There are currently nine rough sleepers bedding down in the NHS building on Church Street, which has been occupied since November.
And those who misbehave, or ‘take the p***,’ as one resident puts it, will be shown the door.
At the helm is Stacie Martindale, who lived in the squat until she got a flat a few weeks ago, paid for by Andy Burnham’s A Bed For Every Night scheme.
She has the flat until the end of this month. After that she’s hoping they will prolong the lease.
Despite recently moving out, she still dedicates most of her days to helping the nine men who still live in the squat get back on their feet.
Some residents have found themselves at the derelict surgery through problems like addiction and broken relationships. Others are working people who have fallen through society’s cracks.
One of the residents is an electrician who has been there since Christmas. He’s got a deposit saved up and is on a good wage, but he’s on a zero hours contract.
That means he’s struggling to prove to landlords or mortgage lenders that he has a regular income so he can’t get his foot on the property ladder.
Stacie visits the residents every day with her French Mastiff Kion and wakes them up with bacon butties.
“I’m not gonna lie and say it’s like Swiss Family Robinson and they all sit and cook together every evening”, she says. But they all pitch in, making ‘curries, stews, and shepherds pies.’
It’s far removed from the image of wild raves that people associate with squats, she says. It’s comfy, tidy and clean.
“Some of the lads who have come to us don’t have many life skills so we all chip in, cooking together and teaching each other how to cook”, Stacie adds.
“(The residents) have all started to work together so well. I came in the other morning and they were literally scrubbing walls. I couldn’t believe it.”
Now she’s moved out, Stacie’s role is that of an unpaid care worker. Having experienced her own share of hard times, she knows what it is to feel isolated and forgotten. She helps the men apply for benefits, find work and enrol on courses.
“Sometimes people need to be dragged out the gutter and need you to hold their hand for a bit”, she says.
“They’ve gone that far down the rabbit hole. People just say ‘pick yourself back up,’ but it’s not that simple when you’ve been sat in the gutter that long and had people walk past you like you are nothing.
“That level of acknowledgement is what people need nowadays, it’s not money”, she adds. “They don’t want drugs and alcohol, that is their comfort blanket.
“They get ignored. They are lost. It’s unfair.”
Helping people in need gives Stacie a sense of purpose.
“My pay comes from their faces when they say ‘thanks for that Stace’”, she says. “When they’ve been let down by the system so many times, it’s hard to have that faith again.”
The squat relies on generous donations from the public and charities.
They are given left over food from funerals, and they get sandwiches dropped off from veteran groups.
Residents also go on skip runs and bring back food that has been chucked away but is still edible.
“Not one of us has been ill since we moved here”, Stacie’s keen to add.
All the furniture has been donated – including a pool table which was given to them at Christmas.
The 32-year-old says there’s one main reason why the squat operates so well.
“It’s the level of respect for each other. I’m amazed at how they work together. Without this place, they’d have no home,” Stacie says.
As you’d expect, it isn’t all domestic bliss. But in the three months the squat has been going, residents have developed their own strategies for preventing trouble from escalating.
If someone acts up or causes trouble, they are ‘asked nicely’ to leave, rather than being turfed out on the street, Stacie says.
Stacie used to run a tea shop in Altrincham, and reveals her own problems started about five years ago.
A perfect storm of difficulties – falling behind with the rent, domestic violence, relationship and family breakdown.
Her history of rent arrears meant she has struggled to get council housing since.
It was in her local pub in Altrincham that she first heard about the squat, so she decided to visit with clothes and food for the residents.
When she found out dogs were allowed, she decided she’d give living there a go.
“It was quite daunting. I’m not going to lie,” she says. “But after two, three days I was so comfortable and made to feel at home. They are like a little family. “We are saving people’s lives, just by having them doors open.”
At the end of January, following an application from the NHS’ lawyers, a judge at Manchester County Court ordered the squatters’ eviction. But, just 24 hours later, the residents were given a stay of execution, after their campaigning solicitors – Greater Manchester Law Centre – appealed against the decision. For now, they are on borrowed time. A spokesperson for NHS Property Services said: “This building was broken into and occupied without our consent.
“Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Services have deemed this property unsafe for residential use in its current form, therefore, we were left with little option other than to instruct our legal team to proceed with seeking possession.”
Local people told us the building had been empty for several years before the squatters moved in.
Naseer Ahmad, 40, who works in a nearby chemist, said of the residents: “I believe they are nice people. They just need our help.”