In Montreal, a group of 140-150 people (near half of them already have an apartment, they were there to show support) occupied illegally an abandoned building, called the Louis-Hippolyte-Lafontaine House, (for the last 12 years) for six days. The cops didn't do anything during the first five days because they were trying to locate the owner. Finally, the man appeared and asked the cops to clean the house of the squatters.
There is a major housing crisis in Montreal right now. On July 1st, there were around 300 families who didn't find an apartment. So, some people took the initiative of finding a house. This building was abandoned and the owner was unknown. Today, the cops talked with the squatters (that's kinda illogical, eh?) and found an agreement. They will all be moved, at the city's expense, in another abandoned building (owned by city's authorities). The city offered two trucks to move the stuff (matresses, chairs, tables) given by the citizens.

Squatters won.
- No rent.
- No bills (electricity and phone bills).
- All necessary commodities (water, electricity).
- No arrests, no legal pursuits.

The new building will be transformed in a kind of cooperative society, owned and ruled by the (poor) people living in it.

I think the city authorities looked at european examples, like in Copenhagen where there is a small turf legally owned by squatters. Though, this is not solving the housing problem. The city actually did nothing, the poors and homeless did all the work. But this is a small step. In which direction, I don't really know, but I'm happy to see people tried something (illegal at first) and won.

Housing is not a luxury, it's a right.

Don't forget the mayor is currently in his campaign... He said earlier that homeless people exist because they don't want to work and have a 'respectable' life. That move is a way to get more votes. But anyway, we are all happy that cops didn't throw them out.