Homeless youth who are running away, like a car on New Hampshire's winter roads, are often out of control. They no longer have control of the steering wheel and no road map.
Many homeless individuals are recruited into risky situations to meet their needs, taking a highway that ends with human trafficking. The primary vulnerability of homelessness are the unfulfilled, basic needs for shelter, warmth and food. This is fertile ground for traffickers. New Hampshire's cold winters put homeless individuals at acute need for shelter and predators frequently offer a place to stay and hot meal as inducement to get off the frigid street.
One can then be lured by the offer that someone will take care of them, with the vague understanding this offer has a cost and that they may 'owe' someone. However alternatives may come with (or seem to) additional risks or even death, should one stay outside in the New Hampshire winter.
The Polaris Project which serves victims and survivors through the 24/7 National Human Trafficking Hotline and as a national access point for trauma-informed support, published a recent survey, focusing on homelessness in recruitment for human trafficking.
In Polaris’s survivor survey, 64% reported being homeless or experiencing unstable housing at the time they were recruited into their trafficking situation. Traffickers are able to exploit potential victims’ fear of sleeping on the street by offering them safe shelter to recruit them into trafficking. LGBTQ+ populations are at an increased risk as well as runaway/homeless youth and some may choose to engage in survival sex to get access to shelter. The National Hotline has also documented cases of traffickers targeting homeless shelters as recruitment grounds.
Be aware of the vulnerability of this population and encourage youths to speak with adults whom they trust when they are desperate, not strangers.
The New Hampshire Human Trafficking Collaborative Task Force is aware of the fundamental need for shelter and housing and one energetic leader has stepped up to this challenge with a grassroots effort to identify potential collaborating agencies and sources of funding to tackle this concern. The effort is significantly challenging, not simply with the initial funding, but determining the funding stream necessary to maintain a residence, maintain the building, coupled with the service providers and financials necessary to wrap trauma-informed services around the victims. Initial housing search efforts are north of Concord, focusing on small cities with access to health care and transportation. To learn more visit http://brigidsnh.org/.
Recent news has highlighted this concern: NSF Funds Worcester Polytechnic Institute Research to Help New York City Homeless Youths at Risk for Human Trafficking
WORCESTER, Mass. (PRWEB) November 07, 2019
A research team led by professors at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) will use data analytics and optimization to determine the most efficient use of shelters and services for homeless youths in New York City. Their goal is to disrupt the "supply side" of human trafficking networks by reducing the vulnerability of those most at risk of exploitation.
Renata Konrad, associate professor at the Foisie Business School at WPI, has received a $535,565 grant from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Special Initiatives program for the three-year project. Andrew Trapp, also associate professor, is a co-principal investigator on the project. The study will build on previous research led by Konrad using analytics to develop tools to understand and address human trafficking networks.
"To disrupt human trafficking, we need to look at the beginning of the supply chain—at-risk homeless youths," Konrad said. "The question is, can we stop the trafficking process before it happens with shelters and services for homeless youths?"
By Jane Hart, Task Force member and Community Volunteer