<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Dante-Gabryell Monson</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dante.monson@gmail.com">dante.monson@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 8:37 AM<br>Subject: Fwd: Guardian : More than 11m homes lie empty across Europe - enough to house all of the continent's homeless twice over<br>To: Michel Bauwens <<a href="mailto:michelsub2004@gmail.com">michelsub2004@gmail.com</a>><br>
<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><br><div dir="ltr"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/23/europe-11m-empty-properties-enough-house-homeless-continent-twice" target="_blank">http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/23/europe-11m-empty-properties-enough-house-homeless-continent-twice</a><br>
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More than 11m homes lie empty across <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/europe-news" title="More from the Guardian on Europe" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat" target="_blank">Europe</a> – enough to house all of the continent's homeless twice over – according to figures collated by the Guardian from across the EU.</p>
<p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 13px;border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;line-height:18.98714256286621px;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">In <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/spain" title="More from the Guardian on Spain" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat" target="_blank">Spain</a> more than 3.4m homes lie vacant, in excess of 2m homes are empty in each of France and Italy, 1.8m in Germany and more than 700,000 in the UK.</p>
<p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 13px;border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;line-height:18.98714256286621px;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">There are also a large numbers of vacant homes in <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/ireland" title="More from the Guardian on Ireland" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat" target="_blank">Ireland</a>, Greece, Portugal and several other countries, according to information collated by the Guardian.</p>
<p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 13px;border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;line-height:18.98714256286621px;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">Many of the homes are in vast holiday resorts built in the feverish<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/housing" title="More from the Guardian on Housing" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat" target="_blank">housing</a> boom in the run up to the 2007-08 financial crisis – and have never been occupied.</p>
<p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 13px;border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;line-height:18.98714256286621px;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">On top of the 11m empty homes – many of which were bought as investments by people who never intended to live in them – hundreds of thousands of half-built homes have been bulldozed in an attempt to shore up the prices of existing properties.</p>
<p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 13px;border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;line-height:18.98714256286621px;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">Housing campaigners said the "incredible number" of homes lying empty while millions of poor people were crying out for shelter was a "shocking waste".</p>
<p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 13px;border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;line-height:18.98714256286621px;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">"It's incredible. It's a massive number," said David Ireland, chief executive of the <a href="http://www.emptyhomes.com/" title="" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat" target="_blank">Empty Homes</a> charity, which campaigns for vacant homes to be made available for those who need housing. "It will be shocking to ordinary people.</p>
<p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 13px;border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;line-height:18.98714256286621px;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">"Homes are built for people to live in, if they're not being lived in then something has gone seriously wrong with the housing market."</p>
<p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 13px;border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;line-height:18.98714256286621px;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">Ireland said policymakers urgently needed to tackle the issue of wealthy buyers using houses as "investment vehicles" – not homes.</p>
<p style="padding:0px;margin:0px 0px 13px;border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-size:14px;line-height:18.98714256286621px;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">He said Europe's 11m empty homes might not be in the right places "but there is enough [vacant housing] to meet the problem of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/homelessness" title="More from the Guardian on Homelessness" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(0,86,137);text-decoration:none;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat" target="_blank">homelessness</a>". There are 4.1 million homeless across Europe, according to the European Union.</p>
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</div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><div><b>Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..</b></div><div><br></div>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a> - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br>
<br><a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank"></a>Updates: <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br>
<br>#82 on the (En)Rich list: <a href="http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/" target="_blank">http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/</a> <br></div>
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