What is the quality of exempt housing provision?
“There's an organization called [ORGANISATION], which seems to realize they can make a lot of money by having HMOs, calling them hostels, getting the enhanced housing benefit rate, and really only ever seeing their clients when they’re chasing them for rent.”
“They’re dreadful, they don't offer any support. There is nothing. It's just the worst kind of hostels you can imagine, and a lot of money for it.”
“They say they’re delivering weekly keyworkers. And they're not. They're not at all, not even come close to it. So just lies.”
“They [COUNCIL] have a relationship with landlords in the local area. There was an outhouse for pre-abstinent people. I think I was five days sober and it was like, I'd go there and wait to get into the hostel. And when I got that, it's a house, nowhere near any of the staff. So it was with two blokes. I had my phone stolen, I was sexually assaulted. And I had to try and stay sober to keep that. And the rents were extortionate. Because whilst I was given a tenancy support officer, she did it wrong. So I ended up basically paying about 600 pound for the privilege of having my phone stolen and being assaulted. There was holes in the bathroom door were people were going out of their mind - it was pre abstinence people trying to get clean and sober, not well, people. And to me, I felt like at the time, it's only now I come to realize that shouldn't have happened to me, but I wasn't in a position to make a decision about whether or not it was appropriate for me to be housed there or not. And that really comes down to the service to make those decisions for me, and to make sure that they're safe. And you know, even if I had been drinking, I still don't think it was a good thing you know. But five days sober, it was just far too much and I wasn't supported… And I think the only thing that really made it supported was I checked in and did a test. So I played the game and was abstinent. And then they did some paperwork, poorly, that wasn't very supportive… The requirements are very loose. And they're setting the people up to fail as well. I'd got five days! Would that have been something that I could have carried on, had I not been placed in a terraced house in the middle of [ ] far away from the support of the staff and with two blokes? I don't know. But I didn't stay sober.”
“I was in [ ]. I was in there for five years. And it was run by the clients. It was not run by the staff at all. And some of the staff were in effect clients because they were having affairs with people that live there and selling drugs to the people that live there. And it was chaos, but who actually checks on all this stuff anyway? Is there an officer from the council? Should it be peers that check these services? Are these exempt accommodations? Should it be a council officer? Or should it be someone with lived experience? I mean, who do these people have to report to?”
“There was a 70 bed hostel in [ ]. It was commissioned by [Council], originally [funded] by supported people, run by [ ]. It used to get audited once a year … she would go there once a year to look through the files and do a sample survey with selected residents. It was as chaotic as [ ] said, it used to be more chaotic when they had its dormitories. The place got shut down because it had a specific floor for sex workers. And there was multiple instances where people were sexually assaulted, huge levels of violence outside, staff did nothing about, and the only trail was an audit once a year. When I was outreaching that area I used to go there and you'd see them filling out forms a few days beforehand that hadn't been touched for months.”
“Too many unscrupulous people make lots of money and give a disgusting service to people who feel they haven’t got a choice.”
“What we've got in [CITY] is we've got some of these supported accommodation providers that are not commissioned that are basically private landlords that have cottoned on to where they're at this shared house that, you know, I would normally get 100 pounds per week for an individual, I can make a few tweaks and abide by flakey regulations to cost myself for supported accommodation. And what consists of […] is someone going around to the property to, in essence, not really support the individual but to make sure they're not trashing the property.”
“There was a an organization that came from out of area that have got so many units in [CITY] and [CITY] Housing Options struck up a bit of a, a bit of a partnership with them, because there's a lack of accommodation... So what they were doing was this organization was going into Housing Options, and they're having surgeries in there. And what shocked me was some of the most vulnerable people that would benefit from shared accommodation were being assessed and were being placed in these properties.”
“It's a lot of private landlords using the same accommodation that they're using in the private rented market. But they've now just spruced it up. Bear in mind, the properties haven't been spruced up. But in terms of the name, they’re supported accommodation, they can charge a lot more money, a lot more money, and there's no support provided.”
“There was a hostel in South London that was doing this stuff and sweeping out rough sleepers often into supported accommodation, calling themselves a hostel. And they really bloody weren't. They were just fly by night landlords getting the extra money. We were trying to put something together with someone from the DWP to challenge it and get the exempt status taken off them. And it’s that bad, he couldn't do it. It was dreadful.”
“These organisations have a mixture of large hostel type buildings and dispersed housing as move on which weren’t always in the best areas or good standards- they would take people from any area, we have some LA areas who don’t have accommodation at all so would refer directly people with multiple disadvantage and even disabilities and forget about them. These organisations don’t have support plans/risk assessments or are subject to the same quality checks that commissioned services are- we had issues around safeguarding people as again they aren’t subject to the same scrutiny as commissioned services. The LA Environmental Health Teams do have powers and will inspect these properties under the HMO licensing - we did have some success in closing down the worst of these private businesses but it was a hard slog to get there with legal services being involved.”
“[PERSON] ended up losing his accommodation. He had a bedsit for like 10, 12 years, lost his accommodation because the owner was selling the property. And the very, very last minute they stuck him in some accommodation, which is exempt accommodation, there was no support at all. Full stop, period, none. There was somebody who was concerned about getting the fucking money. And what made it worse was that they had, I think there was nine, eight or nine rooms in this HMO. And all of a sudden, there's a whole thing about the refugees coming in, [the provider thought] I can get X amount of money per refugee. I'm going to kick these people out and put refugees in. They put bunk beds in the room so they could get more bodies in and then started moving in refugees. [PERSON] was the last one to leave, and they just filled his room. And he ended up going into another set of accommodation which was exempt accommodation. The driver was absolutely the money and not about the person, which was a real shame.”
"The country is clearly not getting value for money.”
“If you move into exempt accommodation, often the local housing policy will mean that you don't qualify for the Housing Register. So you think, Oh, I've done the two years and they're like, well, we don't care because you're in a shit hostel that we don't regulate. So you’ve got to move to another hostel, to a registered hostel to do your time and ratios and all sorts of things to get onto the Housing Register. So I'd imagine most Housing Register housing allocation policies are the same around the country. We challenged it in [ ] we've got to change it, because we kind of made the point. It's not the individual's fault that they've been told the wrong hostel. They went in with good faith, but I'd imagine most places haven't changed it so that's pretty grim.”
How does whether a provider is registered or non-registered, or commissioned or non-commissioned, impact the quality of provision?
“My experience has been that even registered provides crap support and accommodations. They don't tick those boxes anyway. And you just have to jump through maybe a couple more hoops than you do if you're not in that sort of accommodation. I'm not really sure I see the realistic difference between exempt supported accommodation, registered supported accommodation and everything else. Because the support, in my view anyway, is often failing in every type.”
“My experience of registered providers, they're not really much better at all, they have a lot more HR staff and stuff like behind the scenes, but the support people get you can't tell the difference.”
“If you change the law to say that to be exempt accommodation, you've got to be a registered charity or Community Interest Company, at least then your organization should have charitable objectives as their basis rather than having a money making thing. And also then be accountable to the Charity Commission, have trustees and stuff like that as well, which might give you a bit more sway over them if they've been dodgy.”
“It really isn't just those kind of really bad examples in Birmingham. So organizations in [ ] who look slick, good websites and good public opinion. They are just as guilty in some cases as others and they carry on under everyone's noses… They're sweeping up loads of funding and stuff. And they're rubbish. The people who live there, just say it's terrible.”
“It just needs to be said how this is a racket; so the whole sector is morally short, it’s predatory you know, punishing. It's fraud. They're kind of saying that they're doing supported housing when it's not supported. Well, that's fraud. They're getting millions of pounds for it… There doesn't seem to be any kind of outcry, no-one seems to be bothered who seem to be making these decisions.”
How should the regulatory oversight of exempt accommodation be organised?
“There should be legislation ending this type of accommodation and enhanced HB should only be given to organisations/charities that are working with a LA to provide a decent standard accommodation that is inspected regularly- it doesn’t have to be commissioned directly by the LA but as long as there is a need in that City and its agreed by both parties.”
“If the government wants to avoid a scandal at some future date, they need to consider where staff / clients are using the availability of vulnerable people to have sex and sell drugs… The[se] issues are actually traumatising people more, leading to more drinking, drugs (to cope) and pushing people further away from seeking help. They quite likely are increasing criminality, aside from the[se] issues … people burn money rapidly if they are on drink and drugs - to make ends meet they will steal.”
“Maybe the fix isn't in supported and exempted accommodation. Things like multi-agency working lower the need for people to be in supported or exempt accommodation. Making sure the community mental health teams, making sure the drug recovery teams, etc, are well funded, well available. And then people can have a normal tenancy rather than a license agreement or whatever, which 90% of people are legally entitled to anyway, they're just told by councils that they have to be in supported. And so you're not fixing the support and accommodation, but you're filtering out and empowering clients to realize actually, they might not need the support and accommodation. Given the right outside support, they would do so much better in their own place.”
“Rather than providing decent temporary accommodation, and then the final set of accommodation, it's you either rough sleep or we've got a place in this hostel for you. Well, when you're in that position, they're forcing your hand, and I think that's one of the main things I don't like about that sort of accommodation.”
“You don't get told what you're moving into. Companies like [ ], they’ve got loads of bed spaces. Take this or we're gonna kick you back onto the streets with no mention of the homeless application process at all.”
“I think most just end up putting people into this sort of accommodation because there's no deposits, there's no bonds, there's no fees. They haven't got to pay incentives. The person goes into, quote, unquote, supported accommodation, where in fact, it's just a shared house and that person's left alone. They get a house visit once a week just to see how they're doing. I can see why overall it saves a lot more money by putting people into exempt accommodation than helping them actually find private rented and their own accommodation. There's no deposits, no incentives. So I can see that's why local authorities aren't overly keen on fighting that because they get the money from central government. It's not something they have to fork out.”
“There are some people that will benefit from going into somewhere where they don't need much support. No one's no one's saying that's not the case, we're all about empowering and enabling people. But it's when the support on offer is the bare minimum, and you're just making mass referrals, and just to get your numbers down in emergency accommodation, which obviously costs the local authority. And it doesn't look great when you're submitting numbers to DLUHC.”
“The concern I've got is whether or not local authorities will want to back this. In [ ], they've got a private rented scheme. And the private rented scheme is to regulate the private rented market. The issue they've got is if we come across somebody who wants to run private rented, if [ ] City Council got to provide a bond and you know, admin fees, etc, they have to inspect the property. And what you'll find is, a lot of the landlords just refuse. So [ ] City Council are almost having to lower their standards, because even though they want to look like they're regulating the market, they still want those bed spaces that some of these providers hold. And that's my worry, local authorities, I don't see supporting this whatsoever.”
“It's basically for the landlord to do as assistance to tenants. Housing debts, assistance to claim and manage housing benefits, advice and assistance in relation to tenancy conditions… It just screams landlord, there's nothing in there about support.”
“Are they registered with the ICO? Do they have basic policies around how they're dealing with clients? It doesn't deal with the problem directly, but if you've got private companies and landlords doing this sort of stuff, then they should be registered. And they should be following various rules around that sort of stuff or the Equality Act. How does that work around someone who's got a disability or needs a wheelchair or something like that? How does it all fit in? So I think you might be able to get some quite concrete quick examples of where practice is not okay.”
“I'm just gonna use [BOROUGH] as an example. The council systematically abused children for years. And none of the inspectors did anything. It was only when a group of people happened to get together. And that's what got all it all over the news and stuff. With these regulators, it should be the people that are using the services or have used the service. You can't believe a word the inspector say, they just cover it all up.”
“It [funding] comes from central government. They're the ones who need to understand are they’re actually getting value for money. The local council doesn't care that the money is going to these landlords because the council is not actually footing the bill, …, so it's not in their interest to really care what quality is, but presumably the central government does. They’re the ones who should be putting standards and criteria on who the councils are working with.”
“I can only see this being done with a regulatory body being set up, that can say what they can say without having to pay for it. So be like CQC, where actually, they can they can hold organizations to a set standards, and it's not their job to then build more houses. And that's going to cost 10s of millions of pounds to have it. So I'm pretty pessimistic about this.”
“I feel like an independent, long term kind of audit is what needs to be looked at. Generally, you need to know that actually, when they're in certain places, it goes better than others. What can we learn from those places to repeat it? So we can see an overall way of working. This is better, this will start to influence our standards. And then this gets rolled out and I don't know who monitors it, but I feel like a long term view is needed. Because we know it's not linear this life.”
“They should be well known, it should be somebody who actually has the responsibility to check these places out completely, not only not only talk to the staff, because that's what most organizations do. They talk to staff and talk to the residents.”
“Any regulatory body – co-production needs to be the forefront thought, not an afterthought. It’s got to be right from the beginning. It's got to be people building the service around the people that know what's what.”
“Feedback process should not only encourage all to provide feedback but also ensure that it is done to managers (not staff potentially exploiting people).”
“The way that most things change is you have a complaint. So then someone knows that something needs changing. But the I think the root issue is the people that are in the place to complain, are the people that are also being screwed over potentially. And there's too much at stake for people that are living in sporting accommodation to complain about where they're living, because there's the real risk of being kicked out. And whether that's lawful or not, it happens. And then councils might find that person intentionally homeless, and then they literally just going round and round different supported accommodation. And so I think any sort of regulatory body or anything like that, I think needs to have air tight protection in place for those that do come forward and say, ‘Look, this is actually the issue I'm having, whether that's the support isn't being offered that I was told was going to be there, or whether it's whatever the issue is, there needs to be massive protection for the individual. I know there's whistleblowing law, but I'm not sure that's enough of a reassurance.”
“The problem is, I think all of us recognize this one. A lot of residents won't say anything. I'd be scared of being outed.”
“Start with regulations in regards to staff rather than regulations what staff have to do for clients or regulations in what clients have to do and how they have to engage. Actually regulations around who's being employed, how much they're being employed, let's not employ minimum wage for people that are having other people's lives in their hands. And let's employ people with relevant experience, whether that's lived experience or employment experience within the sector. Let's have regulation over client led focuses, let's have regulations over staff burnout, so there isn't staff burnout, and there's training for staff on how to cope with shitty situations, clients dying in the blocks, clients relapsing, stuff that really does take a toll on a professional, whether you've got 50 years experience or five years experience. At one point or another, you'll be like, shit, that was a hard day. And so I think regulations around staff need to be more than what they are, rather than regulations over. Let's make sure every room has a double bed, or let's make sure every person has, you know, one washing machine to every three people. Yes, that stuff matters. But my experience of being in supported accommodation is it’s actually how you're treated [that matters], and being treated like adults, with history and everything else.”
Is there sufficient publicly available information about exempt accommodation?
“I spent some time googling all of the types of accommodation, like supported and exempt and stuff in [CITY]. And it's not obvious on their websites, whether they're exempt supported, registered, regulated, it's not clear. And I think the best types of supported accommodation, and the ones that do it well, are the ones that are most transparent. And the ones that are most ‘here's what we offer.’”
“It's almost naive to say people can be regulated if they're not actually being honest and open about what, who they are, what part of the system they're in. How are we supposed to empower clients to be in charge of their own accommodation, their own journey through their recovery, if they're not sure what they're a part of, if they're not sure if they're in supported accommodation, if they're not sure of the differences, and the pros and cons.”
“They've been on the news a few times for properties, office blocks, they've turned into accommodation. Their website is amazingly slick, they are run as a very, very good organization. And I've checked them out really, really well to see if somewhere that I want to send people that I support to. And so I've gone to viewings, I've had a look at places that they've got, and they’re absolute dives. The only ones that look good are the recent office refurbs. Everywhere else, I would not want my worst enemy go into them. When I've spoken to people that live there they haven't got a clue who their housing officer is. They haven't got a clue what their personalized housing plans are… I almost burst out laughing - look at what they're supposed to be doing compared to what they're actually doing. They've won awards for supported accommodation!”
“I've asked recently about what they're supposed to offer. And they don't have a copy of what they're supposed to offer. Apparently, they don't have a copy of that. But they're claiming that this is supported accommodation.”
“When people are transparent, and inclusive to everyone, that's got to lead to more honest and open conversations, which ultimately leads to positive change. And it's not about tearing people down. It's not about saying you're rubbish or not doing your job. It's about saying, ‘How can we do this even better? How can we improve?’”
January 2022