Three years ago, lawyer Jordan van den Berg was an obscure TikTok creator who made videos that mocked real estate agents.
But today the 28-year-old is one of the most high-profile activists in Australia.
Posting under the moniker Purple Pingers, Mr van den Berg has been taking on the nation’s housing crisis by highlighting shocking renting conditions, poor behaviour from landlords, and what he calls government failures.
It is his vigilante-style approach - which includes helping people find vacant homes to squat in, and exposing bad rentals in a public database - that has won over a legion of fans.
Some have dubbed him the Robin Hood of renters.
Found the landlord.
If there is an empty house,and they aren’t doing damage, no harm no foul.
Well, it’s trespassing, but I’d argue it should be a crime to own a house and leave it empty. They should have it rented at least.
It is a crime, a crime against humanity. It’s just not a crime recognized in most legal systems.
Forcing bad landlords to fix their properties, go for it.
Squatting yeah no. Get the f out
What’s the harm in squatting, as long as they aren’t damaging the property, and the property is well and truly vacant?
How is this stealing? At most it’s prohibiting passive income on capital investment.
Stealing is taking someone’s property without permission. That’s what squatting is. By encouraging squatting, this person is encouraging stealing and that makes them an awful person.
Squatting is not “taking property” especially if the property in question is vacant. The property is still there and will stay there when the squatters leave.
The problem here is that you seem to value your own property rights over the right of individuals to have shelter. Sure, it’s not an ideal situation; in an ideal society “squatting” shouldn’t occur, but we live in a society where people are forced to choose between being homeless or squatting in someone’s property. If you think they should forgo their right to shelter to preserve your right to property then you are the awful person.
Holy shit my guy. “Someone vaguely disagreed with me and used the same verbiage I used on someone else, time to block them”. Touch grass, please, for your sake as much as ours.
You’re an awful person. Stealing is what capitalists use land ownership for.