A house is not a home: housing disadvantage, homelessness, and modern slavery

Clare, Nick; Iafrati, Steve; Reeson, Carla; Wright, Nicola; Gray, Charlotte; Baptiste, Henri

Abstract

This commentary focuses on the underexplored links between housing disadvantage, homelessness, and modern slavery. Despite significant anecdotal evidence, there is a pressing need for proper theorisation of the connections between housing situation and vulnerability to modern slavery. This commentary combats this lacuna by focusing on four types of (un)housing: homelessness, safehouses, social housing, and the private rented sector. While each site has its own relationship to modern slavery, be it cause, consequence, or potential solution, commonalities emerge. Modern slavery is a form of ‘hyper-precarity’, and the ‘ontological security’ of a place to call home is crucial when combatting this. But a house is not a home, and security of tenure alone is insufficient – in fact in some cases tenure security can actually increase vulnerability to modern slavery. A sense of home can act as a bulwark against modern slavery, but poor housing and bad policies increase precarity, homelessness, and exploitation.

Citation

Clare, N., Iafrati, S., Reeson, C., Wright, N., Gray, C., & Baptiste, H. (2023). A house is not a home: housing disadvantage, homelessness, and modern slavery. Journal of the British Academy, 11, 83-93. https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/011.083

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 23, 2023
• Online Publication Date: May 4, 2023
• Publication Date: May 4, 2023
• Deposit Date: May 9, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: May 10, 2023
• Journal: Journal of the British Academy
• Electronic ISSN: 2052–7217
• Publisher: British Academy
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Pages: 83-93
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/011.083
• Keywords: Modern slavery, homelessness, social housing, safehouses, housing crisis
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/20558358
• Publisher URL: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publishing/journal-british-academy/11/a-house-is-not-a-home/