Lawyer and housing solution advocate Jordan van den Berg (AKA Purple Pingers) has received a wave of fury from landlords, real estate agents, and Boomers after he shared a video that advocated for squatting in homes that have been left vacant. Though he admits that squatting is not the ideal solution, it’s a lot better than letting the homes to go waste while people are homeless.
The enemy of landlords/housing-crisis messiah known online as Purple Pingers (@purplepingers), posted a video on April 5 which has since earned him death threats from those who disagreed with his controversial view that everyone should have a safe place to live.
“I was definitely surprised by how many people were happy to openly out themselves and say they hate poor people,” he told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
Famous for his site shitrentals.org which provides less-than-flattering reviews of landlords, rentals, and real estate agents, the 27-year-old lawyer took a break from his usual videos where he showcases absolutely unholy rentals landlords are trying to make money off — ya know, just normal housing crisis things.
In the video where he toured an abandoned home in Victoria, Jordan highlighted a potential action that can be taken by anyone who is “sick of rich people hoarding empty houses.”
“If the government won’t do anything about people hoarding empty homes, make them,” he captioned the video.
What Jordan pitched was squatting; the act of occupying an abandoned home and living in it without renting, or any legal permission. It’s not a popular solution, but it’s also not always illegal either.
In Australia, squatting may not be illegal under the right circumstances. Those being:
- The property looks abandoned and the doors are unlocked.
- The squatter is not asked to leave by the owner.
If a person looking to occupy an empty home breaks the locks, that is breaking and entering, and if they are asked to vacate the premises and do not, then it is trespassing. But otherwise, it could be okay.
Which is why Purple Pingers points out that it’s “not necessarily illegal, which is the best type of legal.”
@purplepingers If the government won’t do anything about the rich hoarding empty homes, make them. Submit empty homes near you through my linktree (it’s the second link) 🙂
♬ original sound – Jordie van den Berg
Jordan shared with his followers that there is a new part of shitrentals.org that allows users to submit houses they know to be abandoned, which he told The Project he will then share with people who are in need of shelter.
“Homes are for people to live in, not for people to make money off,” Jordan said in the video.
To various media outlets Jordan acknowledged squatting is not the best solution long term. However, while people are in need of shelter and waiting for government policy to aid them, he says the question of what’s worse is up for debate.
“Do you think it’s right that we have thousands of vacant abandoned homes while we have people living on the street?” Jordan hit back The Project’s Sarah Harris when she asked him if he thought encouraging squatting was a good fix.
“Squatting is quite clearly not the ideal solution to our housing crisis in Australia, but it obviously makes rich people angry and when rich people are angry, often something gets done,” Jordan told SBS.
Jordan also took to X (formerly Twitter) to share an example of a few of the homes that he had already been told were abandoned, some for as long as 20 years.
In response to his stunt, Jordan has been the recipient of hatred online from landlords, real estate agents, Boomers, and general cookers that reckon he’s a “filthy leftist.”
And though most people would be stressed out by the negative hate, Purple Pingers just trolls them back instead. It’s hilarious, king shit.
“A bunch of leftists” https://t.co/SGiimcITVs
— Purplepingers (@purplepingers) April 6, 2024
Cookers gonna cook https://t.co/ItOKiOURK7
— Purplepingers (@purplepingers) April 6, 2024
Conservatives running straight to daddy musk is very cute https://t.co/9o23afT6AB
— Purplepingers (@purplepingers) April 7, 2024
However not all of it was funny.
Jordan also pointed out how heartbreaking the huge response from people with violently anti-homeless views was.
The amount of both American and Australian folks saying they’d kill a homeless person on sight if they rocked up at a place that isn’t even their house is honestly heartbreaking.
— Purplepingers (@purplepingers) April 7, 2024
I hope you’re never in a place of need and are met with someone like you.
Y’all have really opened…
And while it was disappointing to see such a negative backlash, Jordan confirmed that most of it was from Americans, which he told PEDESTRIAN.TV didn’t surprise him.
“They seem to have an oversupply of guns and an undersupply of brain cells,” he said.
“But in Australia generally I don’t seem to get many death threats, just plenty of angry real estate agents and landlords.”
What’s even more brave of the TikTok sensation, was his response to the outcry from Americans who didn’t like him sharing empty Australian houses.
Rather than cowering, or clarifying that the squatting laws are different in Australia to the US, Jordan doubled down and started a space where people could submit abandoned American homes too.
@purplepingers Allegedly vacant american houses x
♬ original sound – Jordie van den Berg
Though the negative backlash is stressful, Jordan sees the bright side of his crusade too, which is that more people are seeing the importance of fixing the housing crisis one way or another.
“I think that most people agree that on an ethical level there’s something fundamentally wrong with having thousands of abandoned homes while we have people sleeping on the street during a housing crisis,” he told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“Also I feel like more and more people are ready to eat the rich.”
And at the end of the day, isn’t that what it’s all about?
