Modern Slavery Victims Are Missing Out On Housing Support, New Report Finds
5 min read
Some victims of modern slavery are not receiving the housing support they are entitled to because of gaps in what local councils provide, a new report has found.
A report by The Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group and accommodation provider for survivors Hope at Home, shared with PoliticsHome, found significant obstacles to housing support for modern slavery survivors who had received refugee status and been evicted from asylum accommodation.
Freedom of Information responses from 38 local authorities in England included reveal there isn’t a clear statutory requirement to ask and record information about the National Referral Mechanism — the government framework used to identify and support victims of modern slavery.
15 out of the 38 local authorities that responded to said they do not ask questions about modern slavery when assessing priority needs for housing applications.
This has created an inconsistent approach across councils when determining if someone has support needs linked to modern slavery as part of housing applications, say the organisations behind the report.
“The risks of not identifying someone during these assessments leads to a lower chance of them being considered to be in priority need,” Eleonora Fais of Anti-Trafficking Monitoring Group told PoliticsHome.
“It also means that local authorities lack essential information that can inform the type of housing arrangements needed to keep someone safe and help their recovery.”
Even at councils where frontline housing staff do ask whether an applicant has suffered modern slavery, if they aren’t trauma informed staff, survivors can fall through the cracks, the report says.
“Many survivors do not know they have been exploited,” said Helen Hodgson of Hope at Home.
“Simply being asked if they are a victim of modern slavery is not enough.
"Without being asked about indicators of modern slavery — was your passport removed? Were you paid minimum wage? Were you able to come and go as you pleased or did your employer have control over your movements? — they are not able to identify that they have been exploited themselves.”
Another inconsistency between local authorities identified in the report is the eligibility of modern slavery for priority need housing.
“Modern slavery survivors are not always classed as priority need for accessing social housing because modern slavery in itself is not explicitly included as a ‘priority need’,” Fais said. “It is only a vulnerability to be considered. A survivor of modern slavery may be recognised in priority need, but it is not an automatic entitlement.”
Over seven months, the 38 local authorities which responded recorded around 135 homelessness applications by modern slavery survivors with refugee status. Of these, 42 applicants were found to be priority need, 44 were not, and 49 were still waiting for a decision with no interim accommodation offered.
The result of the inconsistencies, the report warns, is that modern slavery survivors who have had a positive asylum decision are left vulnerable to homelessness and far more vulnerable to being exploited again.
“Our referrals for people sleeping rough have doubled and we already know that traffickers target homeless people,” Hodgson said.
“If someone is sleeping rough and they are offered a job and somewhere to live, they are far more likely to take it and find themselves exploited again. Some will return to their trafficker as it feels ‘safer’ than the unknown situation they are currently in.”
The organisations behind the report have written to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner asking for further housing support for victims of modern slavery (Alamy)
In the 22/23 financial year, Hope at Home, which offers accommodation options for modern slavery survivors in the UK who have no alternatives, received 12 referrals for people sleeping rough at point of referral. In the following financial year, they received 37 referrals for the same group. Their total number of referrals for accommodation went from 78 in 22/23 to 115 in 23/24. Most of their referrals were for single men.
Hodgson said the increase is due to recent changes in immigration policy changes in the last year. In August 2023, the Home Office decided people would be evicted from asylum accommodation seven days after receiving refugee status. The decision, which was reversed back to the original 28 day move-on period in December 2023, led to an increase in homelessness among refugees.
But Hodgson said 28 days to find housing, employment, and apply for Universal Credit is still not enough time for refugees, particularly those who are modern slavery survivors.
Additionally, changes made in February 2023 streamlined the asylum process allowing for quicker decision-making for those individuals of certain nationalities with high positive grants rates.
“This resulted in a rapid increase in positive decisions being issued very quickly, which consequently increased the number of individuals evicted from asylum accommodations,” Fais said.
Hodgson and Fais have written on behalf of their organisations to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Home Office ministers Jess Phillips and Dame Angela Eagle requesting eight actionable solutions to protect survivors.
Among the requests, they urged modern slavery survivors be classed as priority need by all councils, that training be provided for all housing frontline staff on modern slavery so they can ask trauma-informed questions during assessments to ascertain whether an applicant is a victim of modern slavery, and that the 28-day move on from asylum accommodation to be extended to 56 days to give people time to apply for universal credit and housing, open bank accounts, and find employment.
“This isn’t a popular or well-known subject so I worry survivors will be left again to fall through cracks created by hostile immigration policies,” Hodgson said. “But I’m hopeful for change.”
A Government spokesperson told PoliticsHome “Modern slavery is a scourge that traumatises and dehumanises its victims for profit and we are committed to tackling it in all forms.
“Councils are already expected to prioritise vulnerable people for housing, and we’re giving them millions of pounds to do so.
“We have inherited huge pressures in the asylum system, but we are working to make sure people have the support they need following an asylum decision and to help local authorities better plan their assistance with homelessness.”
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