Modern Slavery Victims Are Missing Out On Housing Support, New Report Finds

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.

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