Squatters who have taken over vacant East West Link properties in Melbourne will be allowed to stay there for at least another week.

A Supreme Court injunction has stopped police forcing them to leave the Collingwood buildings.

Police had threatened to forcibly remove the group of homeless protesters. They have been living in the houses left empty by the dumped East West Link project.

View photos

A Supreme Court injunction stopped that, meaning they can stay for now.

“It really did show that they have been acting completely out of order,” plaintiff Amy Miller said

“If the dawn raids happened this morning there is nowhere for us to go.“





Meghan Fitzgerald from the Fitzroy Legal Service said to ruling should now bring the government to the table to speak with the people living in the houses.

“…Flagging that it would be appropriate for there to be discussions to actually meet the needs of homeless people as apposed to calling in the police to evict them,” Meghan Fitzgerald

“We’re talking about safe, secure, long-term housing, that’s what the residents have been advocating for.”

The government says the Salvation Army has repeatedly tried since March to encourage the people to move out and take up alternative public housing.

View photos Meghan Fitzgerald from the Fitzroy Legal Service says the squatters want a serious government response to homelessness. Photo: 7 News More

Victoria’s housing minister Martin Foley said some of the squatters motives could be attributed to activism.

“A number of the people in those houses who are carrying out, by their own admission, a political protest are already housed in public housing, they are already housed in a range of areas,” he said.

But they say the accommodation they have been offered is temporary and does not solve the homelessness crisis.