‘Sex-for-rent’ is a not a new problem, but the cost-of-living crisis has substantially worsened the issue. In Spring 2023, UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman issued a call for evidence for a government consultation on the ‘Exchange of sexual relations for accommodation (‘sex for rent’)’.
Raven Bowen, CEO of National Ugly Mugs, a UK-wide sex worker safety charity, and author of Work, Money and Duality: Trading Sex as a Side Hustle was approached by the Home Office to participate in the consultation.
“There was some conversation with them before the consultation call went live and then they approached us directly to see if we could contribute anything,” says Bowen. “What they are doing through this consultation is exploring the experience of ‘sex-for-rent’.
“Our major issue is to get them to recognise that sex for stability is a thing that’s being going on for years and years for women and particularly for mums who are impoverished.”
Reducing housing cost
Through National Ugly Mugs (NUM), Bowen contributed case studies and also used the underlying research from her book to inform her discussions with the Home Office.
“I spoke to them about the need to ensure they were also talking with people who hold mainstream employment too, who are forced into sex work and sex-for-rent as a strategy to reduce housing costs,” says Bowen.
The pandemic, cost-of-living crisis and the housing crisis have created a perfect storm of conditions, ripe for exploitation. With interest rates rising and mortgages going up, the pool of people looking to the sex industry to shore up their income is growing.
“Students, working class folks… it’s not going to be an issue that touches only the most impoverished; it’s going to affect people across the working classes – everyone,” says Bowen.
Criminalising landlords
“We also drew upon evidence from the book and from NUM case work to discuss our worries about criminalising folk who seek out sex-for-rent arrangements.”
For Bowen, simply introducing new legislation to prosecute landlords who are exploiting tenants in this way overlooks the fact that this is merely a symptom of a much bigger problem with housing in the UK:
“If we do very little to make sure that safe and affordable housing exists for people who need access to it, regardless of whether they are in sex work or not, we’re going to have people who will trade whatever they have to for stability. So we have to address those underlying structural inequities.
“It’s all in the nuance. Stopping exploitation is important but it’s all in how it’s done, making sure we have all the right supports in place. You can’t have one without the other.
“Even if women are living in an exploitative dynamic right now, criminalising the landlord will make them homeless. Reporting is more of a retrospective thing.”
Sex workers and housing
While the housing shortage, instability and poverty underpin the issue of sex-for-rent, sex workers, people of colour and those with precarious status are most affected as they face additional layers of housing discrimination in the UK.
“We offered the consultation two case studies to give the government an idea of what sex-for-rent means for sex workers, because at times people are doing sex work just to supplement incomes so that they can live in a nice, safe area and have a secure place to raise their kids without having to worry,” says Bowen.
“We have no safety nets, no rent controls in the UK. While there was a moratorium on evictions during the pandemic, if you’re living and working in a more informal arrangement, that doesn’t protect you. Sex workers were being evicted anyway because of morality clauses in some of the leases.”
An additional challenge facing sex workers is that they tend to work from where they live, as it is illegal for them to form small cooperatives which would enable sharing expenses like rent and having working premises.
“Sex workers tend to be the breadwinners of their families and in their communities. Living with a regular client rather than being homeless during a cost-of-living and housing crisis is a rational choice,” says Bowen.
Bowen and National Ugly Mugs were involved with the related Hookers Against Hardship (HAH) Campaign including the parliamentary event held in July.
“HAH called for rent controls, a moratorium on evictions, the decriminalisation of sex work, an end to benefits sanction, the implementation of a living wage – all that anti-poverty groups call for because it’s the basis of everything. If you don’t have housing, you don’t have anything. You can’t build a life.”
Hearing from those affected
Bowen agreed to promote the consultation to ensure that sex workers’ lived experiences of sex-for-rent are included while also respecting the Action Alert from the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) warning against the implementation of new laws without addressing poverty and homelessness.
“The challenge is, will the government hear from the people they need to hear from in deciding upon whether to enact additional laws? They did specifically state that they wanted to hear from people who were currently living in these situations, so that’s encouraging. I’m curious to see what the report will contain. People living in these precarious arrangements now wouldn’t necessarily engage in the consultation because they are in crisis,” says Bowen.
What happens next is the all-important question.
“Do the consultation, learn what you have to learn, but then involve us, involve other anti-poverty groups in whatever strategy you are wanting to implement in terms of housing because the social crisis and the housing crisis still exist.” New laws are not the approach to end this unless we overcome poverty.
“We need to realise that without solving the underlying issues, we are in effect manufacturing forced labour among sex workers and increasing demand for sex-for-rent. It is the social and economic conditions that make people so desperate that they are forced to exchange sex for security,” adds Bowen.
“We have to decide whether we can do better in this country or not.”
The consultation closed at the end of June and publication of the report is expected in the autumn. It is understood that the discussion of sex-for-rent as an issue will take place in the new parliamentary session.
Raven Bowen is the CEO of National Ugly Mugs (NUM), a UK-wide sex worker safety charity, and co-founder of ‘Sex, Work, Law and Society’ (CRN#6) with the Law and Society Association (LSA), USA.
Rebecca Megson-Smith is a writer and writing coach, founder of Ridley Writes.
Work, Money and Duality by Raven Bowen is available on the Policy Press website. Order here for £26.99.
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