The women who sell sex in the Leeds managed area are speaking out ‘We’ve had fireworks, eggs and bottles of urine thrown at us when we are working. We’re all mothers, you know?’

In 2014, Leeds City Council and the West Yorkshire Police piloted a new approach to street sex work in the Leeds area of Holbeck after years of enforcement activity that produced little benefit for the community and left women selling sex on street at risk. Within a designated non-residential area, between the hours of 8pm and 6am, there would be no police prosecutions for soliciting or selling sex.

A dedicated police sex work liaison officer was brought in, as well as an increased police presence, alongside the existing outreach workers with the aim to better protect and support women.

The managed approach has attracted considerable media attention and a small, but vocal group called ‘Save Our Eyes’ is currently campaigning to have it shut down. Residents near the area have complained the rules are being breached and that some women are selling sex outside the specified time and place. Under intense pressure, Leeds City Council has now voted to review the managed approach.

i's opinion newsletter: talking points from today Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

But the voices of the women working in the managed area are often missing from the debate over its future. Street sex work only accounts for between 15-20 per cent of the sex industry overall. Those who work on the street are highly vulnerable and often present with complex needs and challenging circumstances. It is rarely safe for sex workers to compromise their anonymity, and as a result the women working in the managed area struggle to have their views heard.

The following interviews are with the street sex workers who work, or have recently worked, within the managed area of Holbeck. The interviews were secured through Basis Sex Work Project, a local charity that supports women involved in selling sex, which I am involved with. They were conducted in a safe environment with a support worker present throughout.

Charmaine

Charmaine is 36 and grew up in Leeds. She worked in Holbeck for a number of years to support a drug addiction before exiting sex work. She is now free from drugs and plans to help support other women in street sex work.

I’m 36 now and I’ve done it all. All the glamour stuff and dancing, to working the beat in Holbeck, so I have seen it change in Leeds.

I started out in Chapeltown in the 90s. There were loads of girls there then. But eventually people started protesting and we moved to the city centre and Holbeck.

I was arrested so many times [for selling sex] and it didn’t stop me. But that doesn’t happen now and it’s a good thing.

There are lots of girls in the managed area and they’re not all on drugs. Lots are, but not all of them. Some are just mums trying to feed their kids.

I used to get really protective of new girls turning up in Holbeck. It’s not like it was when I started. It was really rough then. Things were easier for me in the managed area.

I’m clean now, not doing sex work and I volunteer for Basis. I want to be a support worker and help other working girls.

Demi

Demi is 35 and has been selling sexual services since her early twenties. After personal trauma, Demi became addicted to heroin and crack cocaine. She sold sex in Holbeck for six years before exiting this year. She is currently clean and sober.

I started dancing and strip-o-grams. I danced all over: Brighton, Cornwall, Blackpool and at lots of private parties, where you’d do the extras. I got into drugs after my baby was stillborn.

Now I’m staying off drugs. I saw Charmaine doing it, and I thought if she can do this, anyone can. I’m Christian and I’ve been praying a lot and trying to read the bible. I’m doing alright now and Basis got me a house with a housing scheme.*

It’s been horrible with the protests about the working girls. I understand why some of them are angry, but I’ll be walking to the area and people will be shouting: “You dirty prostitutes – get off the street.” We’ve had fireworks, eggs and bottles of urine thrown at us when we are working. We’re all mothers, you know?

Some people have been putting pictures of women online. Those women could be struggling with addiction and going through the worst part of their life. I don’t want to be put online and labelled a prostitute.

Not all the women in the area are causing problems like protestors say we are. We want to work with them and work something out.

The Labour MP Hilary Benn came and talked to me at Basis. He was great. He really listened.

* Basis has been running a ‘Housing First’ scheme in Leeds since 2016. The scheme aims to provide unconditional access to housing and support for those people whose needs are not being met by existing housing or homelessness services.

Jessica

Jessica is 28 and works in Holbeck to support her drug habit. She worked in Holbeck for many years before the managed approach was introduced.

The managed approach has made it easier for the girls because the police aren’t arresting them all the time, so they can ask for help. It breaks the cycle. Lot of girls have been able to get help getting their own place, so they don’t have to rely on anyone else. That didn’t happen before.

Before the managed approach, they [the police] would lock you up, slap a fine on you and then you’d have to go back on the beat to make the money to pay the fine for working on the street in the first place. They would know you were not on benefits, so how else are you supposed to earn the money for the fines?

Now, if you’re out there in the right area at the right time then they’re alright with you. The police are nicer to the girls now. We’ve got a community copper now in Holbeck and she’s so lovely.

Ellie

Ellie is 29 and from Romania. She works in the managed area to support her children and is not on drugs

If they close down the managed area, it’s not going to do anything. The girls will still go out and work. They won’t stop it, but they do need to manage it properly.

I can understand the residents being upset, but a lot of what they’re upset about isn’t actually us. All those photos of needles and condoms people post online – that’s not us. It’s all the men who have been begging in town who come and use around the back of the church. They’re using condoms to make crack pipes as well, but we are getting the blame.

Alice

Alice is 34 and has been working in Holbeck for the last four years. She has struggled with addiction but is currently drug-free and is planning on entering residential rehab soon.

Working on the street anywhere is dangerous, but now if something happens, the police actually do something. I was attacked by a man after we’d done business and he busted my eye open and ran off.

I didn’t want to report it, I just wanted to get my drugs. The police in the managed area saw me covered in blood from head to toe. They were really worried about me and I didn’t want to go to hospital. But I was able to give a statement right there on the street and they took photographs without me having to go down the station. I gave a description, and they arrested him half an hour later. He was charged now and he’s going to jail. That wouldn’t have happened before the managed approach. I wouldn’t have spoken to the police because they would have arrested me.

People like that attack sex workers because they think we are drug addicts who have no-one who cares for them. He must have thought: I’m going to look for a prostitute [to attack] because no one cares about them. But I think the police do care about us now.

Natalie

Natalie is 42 and worked in the managed area to support her family. She is not on drugs.

Every girl down there [in the managed area] has her own reasons for doing what’s she’s doing. Some of them have had bad childhoods, but some have had good childhoods and got into drugs later on. Some have just had their money stopped by universal credit and need to feed their kids. That’s what’s happening to me right now.

I’m trying to exit sex work, but I had a letter saying my benefits were going to be stopped within four days unless I switch to universal credit online. I don’t have a computer of my own and don’t know how to use them anyway, so I came to Basis today to try and get some help because I don’t understand it.

The letter said I had to bring some ID in to transfer to universal credit online, but I don’t have a passport, and I’ve never driven a car. I don’t know where my birth certificate is because it was lost when I was in care and I’ve never got a new one. It takes weeks to get a passport and a new birth certificate, but I had four days to do it. How’s that fair?

My money has been stopped and I have to have money to get a new birth certificate or a passport, so I don’t know what to do now. But if I went down on the street, I’d get enough money for the week in a couple of hours. If they don’t want women on the street, they’ve got to sort that out.