Efforts to protect children and young people from Commercial Sex Exploitation in the United States are ongoing at federal, state, civil, and community levels. Increased awareness of the human trafficking epidemic has resulted in a greater number of survivors being identified and highlighted the need to provide shelter and other holistic support services to survivors.
Anti-human trafficking agencies throughout the country graciously shared their resources and time in a survey conducted by Saint Francis Ministries to produce a listing of the number of beds available to survivors of Commercial Sex Exploitation and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, or CSE/C. This listing is designed to be a resource to communities, nonprofits, and government leaders who are working to develop stronger networks of support for survivors and to connect them with these services.
Providers nationwide reported 2,143 beds available to survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation as of Sept. 1, 2019, including
- Emergency and temporary shelter beds
- Short-term & long-term housing
- Residential treatment, and
- Transitional housing.
At this time, findings from providers revealed 86.7% of available beds are exclusively for use by female survivors, fewer than 1% are exclusively for minor male survivors, and 12.5% are available to mixed gender populations. Saint Francis will continue to update the number of available beds as providers contact us. If you are a provider who would like to add beds, or report beds that are no longer available, please email lauren.dalhaus@st-francis.org.
Additionally, 62.6% of available beds are only available to adults, and the remaining 37.4% are available to minors. Although it is estimated that 36% of minor survivors are males and 4% are transgender females, beds are overwhelmingly dedicated to cisgender female survivors. (Swaner, Labriola, Rempel, Walker, & Spadafore, 2016)
