In June 2025, a programmatic agreement was signed between the REGION OF ATTICA of the MINISTRY OF CULTURE and the D.Y.P.A. (employment service), which plans the “renovation” of the first 4 of the 8 building complexes of Prosfygika of Alexandras Avenue. At the same time, it supposedly provides for the creation of social housing and guesthouses. In reality, however, it aims to repress and evict the Community of Squatted Prosfygika and the existing social housing and accommodation structures for people receiving treatment and their companions at the “Agios Savvas” anti – cancer hospital. All this is happening, even though the Community’s decision to maintain and restore the buildings—using its own funds and with the participation of a group of architects, engineers, and other technical professionals working in solidarity—has already been publicly announced over the past year.
Today, more than 400 people live in Prosfygika—locals, refugees, and immigrants, 50 children, vulnerable social groups, people with serious mental health issues, cancer patients, the elderly, and others, with the neighborhood serving as an example of the harmonious coexistence of 27 different nationalities and corresponding languages and religions.
Over the 16 years of operation the Community has established 22 autonomous structures promoting social self-sufficiency, mutual aid, and self-organization for the residents of Prosfygika and surrounding areas. It is a community that struggles for and supports individuals with addictions and collaborates with the rehabilitation structures of the 18+ program.
The Health Structure, one of the self-organized structures of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika, recently joined our network. It serves as an example of a community-based healthcare model that, in addition to providing primary healthcare within a community framework, participates in local struggles and demands regarding public mental health and rehabilitation from addictions, and as part of the “Pan-Hellenic Self-Organized Network for Health,” a new project in Greece.
One of the central slogans of the structure, which also reflects the community’s culture, is: “Solidarity is healing.” The Community of Squatted Prosfygika is a space where true health can be achieved, not only through the practical elimination of exclusion, but also through caring, building strong bonds of companionship, answering to basic human problems in a collective manner, and by approaching health in a holistic rather than fragmented manner, yet without isolating it from the sociopolitical environment that gives rise to and determines “illness.”
The activity of the Health Structure extends beyond the local community to the wider society, as we see by the establishment of the Accommodation Structure for People Receiving Treatment and their Companions at the neighboring anti-cancer hospital “Agios Savvas,” with a second accommodation structure set to open on June 13.
All of this are getting endangered by the state’s current plans for the Community. It is clear that the possible repression and eviction would have incalculable consequences for the mental and physical health of dozens of children, elderly people, and patients of the Community. At the same time, the planned “redevelopment” of Prosfygika will lead to sharp increases in rent prices, a rise in the cost of living, and the forced displacement of residents from the wider area. This is a political choice that promotes the commercialization of the area and the dismantling of a vibrant social project.
Prosfygika already constitute social housing for hundreds of people. It is outrageous that they invoke the “strengthening of social housing” while attempting to dismantle an existing, vibrant social alternative to a world of loneliness, individualization, insecurity, homelessness, and the inadequate or non-existent medical care that states and capitalism are pushing upon us.
The decision of the Region of Attica is a central political directive of the Mitsotakis regime to dismantle the largest social initiative in Greece—and one of the largest in Europe—which has attracted the interest of universities and cultural and educational institutions both in Greece and abroad.
The Community of Squatted Prosfygika has decided to defend its social vision, the people, the structures, and the historical memory of Prosfygika to the very end. Based on this collective decision to defend these values, as of February 5, 2026, Aristotelis Chantzis, a member and resident of Prosfygika, began a hunger strike until death, while on May 1, Suzon Doppagne, also a member and resident of the community, began a hunger strike until death, with the ultimate respect for life.
At this moment, four months after this struggle began, the Greek state continues to adopt a stance of deception and communication games toward the community and the hunger strikers. In fact, the government, through a government spokesperson, has declared the sentencing of the hunger strikers to death, and admitted that it would ignore Amnesty International’s appeal to the authorities to urgently review their plans for Prosfygika, taking into account the hunger strike as well as a series of human rights violations that are happening.
The health of the hunger strikers, and especially of the Hunger Striker Aristotelis Chantzis, that has surpassed the 120 days, is getting progressively worsening and vital organs have started being affected.
We stand with the hunger strikers and with the resistance of the Community of Squatted Prosfygika!
Defending Prosfygika is a matter that concerns us all—it is a matter of social justice and dignity.
We demand that the demands of the community, as expressed through their hunger strike, are being met immediately:
- IMMEDIATE CANCELLATION OF THE CONTRACT BY THE REGION OF ATTICA.
- ALL RESIDENTS OF PROSFYGIKA TO REMAIN IN THEIR HOMES, IN THE PLACE AND AREA WHERE THEY LIVE AND HAVE ESTABLISHED SOCIAL, CULTURAL, AND ORGANICAL TIES.
- CONCRETE GUARANTEES TO BE GIVEN FOR THE RESTORATION OF PROSFYGIKA BY THE NON-PROFIT CIVIL LAW COMPANY KNOWN AS “RESIDENTS AND FRIENDS OF PROSFYGIKA ALEXANDRAS AV.” USING ITS OWN FUNDING! – NOT A SINGLE EURO OF PUBLIC MONEY FOR THE “RESTORATION” OF PROSFYGIKA!
INOSC – International Network of Social Clinic
Hamburg, 7 June 2026
