In just four years, John Freeman has lived in about 30 different “exempt” accommodation properties in Birmingham, his stay in each place frequently breaking down without support for his mental health and his addictions.
Use of exempt accommodation, a type of unregulated supported accommodation for vulnerable people, has soared across the country in recent years, particularly in Birmingham which now has about 30,000 units.
“It’s terrible. Putting people with mental health problems in a house of people with mental health problems with no supervision is not helping anyone,” the 37-year-old said. “They say they’re going to do this and that, but as soon as they get you in there, they’re not interested. There’s no support, so you just end up moving from place to place.
“They’re setting people up to fail. The whole thing is just a money-making scheme.”
Freeman lives in Pershore Road, in Selly Park, which has become saturated with exempt accommodation – 42% of the properties here are now exempt housing, many having previously been student houses.
A campaign group estimates that there are 258 people living in 55 exempt accommodation properties concentrated in this small area, approximately 12% of the local population.
Chris Hasler, a community leader, says there had been a sharp increase in antisocial behaviour n Selly Park, including drug dealing and violence. Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian
On this road and others nearby, landlords are snapping up cheap terrace houses and converting them from family homes into six- to nine-bedroom properties, cramming bedrooms into attics and extensions.
They can then lease these to exempt accommodation providers, who can charge higher rents through housing benefit.
But many of these supposedly supported houses come with little support – Freeman said someone came to check on him once a week but he was otherwise left to fend for himself in a house where he was often kept awake all night by people taking drugs and banging on the walls.
“You put people with all different conditions in one house with basically no supervision, so obviously there’s going to be conflict,” he said.
Sarah*, 32, moved into nearby exempt accommodation after fleeing 13 years of domestic abuse, and said she was distressed by the environment she was forced to live in, which stopped her from being able to move on from her trauma.
“I couldn’t sleep because people would be banging on my door asking me for money,” she said. “They shouldn’t be putting us in homes with drug addicts and alcoholics, we’ve all gone through abuse in different ways.”
She sought help from Christ Church Selly Park, across the road, where volunteers said the past few years had been a steep learning curve about how exempt accommodation worked, and why people were not being given enough support.
“Often people will just arrive having been sent here by the authorities, and some of them have literally nothing, just the clothes they’re in and a one-way bus ticket to Pershore Road,” said the Rev Ben Green.
The church has started stocking emergency bags of food to help new arrivals, and volunteers have undertaken training on how best to help people while maintaining professional boundaries – they don’t hand out money, but they will buy people bus tickets.
“We’re mainly just here to try to be nice to people, to love them, but we don’t have experience of social work and, actually, the level of support some people need is far more than we can offer. But then we’re stuck because we know they’re not getting it from somewhere else,” said Green.
One local resident and campaigner, Chris Hasler, pointed to a two-bedroom family home on his street that had been converted into a seven-bedroom exempt accommodation property. The owners had lowered the ceilings to squeeze in more rooms without needing an extension.
A property in Selly Park, where owners squeeze in more rooms to house vulnerable people. Photograph: Andrew Fox/The Guardian
He said there had been a sharp increase in antisocial behaviour, including drug dealing and violence, and the area was now in the top 10% in the country for crime, according to the latest English Indices of Deprivation.
People had been evicted from the homes and ended up sleeping rough nearby, and residents were concerned the area could soon be irreversibly transformed by the high concentration of poorly run homes.
“Two years ago there was none of this sort of stuff on the street but it’s really building up. This is the worry with all these delays to the legislation – there’s a tipping point and then how do you ever get the street back to family homes?” he said.
Hasler said although residents were frustrated at the problems these properties brought, they were more concerned about the people living in them.
“These are vulnerable people. They’ve got to live somewhere. But it’s how we manage it. They need to be getting the care for their own benefit and for the benefit of the community,” he said.
*Names have been changed to protect anonymity.
