COVENANT HOUSE works in the United States, Canada, and CENTRAL AMERICA.
Their focus is on youth, often HOMELESS YOUTH, who are especially targeted. I know from research that HOMELESS YOUTH are often YOUTH who were in FOSTER CARE.
EXCERPT: Why do human traffickers target kids facing homelessness? Because these young people present a low-risk business proposition and are relatively easy to lure from the streets with promises of love, protection, food, and financial security. Because of their vulnerability, children and teens with no place to call home and no one to care for them make easy prey for traffickers. ... As one of our case workers says, "Trafficking is more than selling sex. Trafficking is young people being physically and sexually assaulted. Trafficking is torture. It means victims being kept up for days. It means forced starvation. Recovery for victims is long and complicated, and takes the efforts of a lot of good people."
I've been to Hollywood Boulevard area a few times. It's a tourist trap. Many of the runaway teens, teens who often ran because they were being abused at home, are picked up as prostitutes in that area. There's a high rate of disease including AIDS.
I saw a girl with a huge dufflebag sitting on the sidewalk, just off the bus, and a woman talking to her, asking her what kind of work she could do. Because this woman was not dressed as a professional, not wearing any badge or ID, I wondered if she was a procurer.
If you're a teen runaway reading this and someone approaches you offering help, ask for the person's business card. Do not go with them. Go to the location on the card another time. See if other young people are going in and out. Talk to them and find out what the place is about. Is it real? What does it look like from the outside? Does it have signage? Windows? Lights?
Try to arrive with some money. A youth hostel is the least expensive option. Try to stay at such a place at least a month and apply for jobs. Fast food work is often easy to obtain. Get out of the Hollywood area if possible. This doesn't mean you'll be safe. But you will be out of an area where there's a lot of procurement, prostitution, pimps. It's not just tourists. Locals pick up kids too.
Options for being safer at night include staying up all night in a fast food restaurant or waiting room at a hospital. Unfortunately thousands are homeless on the streets in California and shelter waiting lists are long. So really I want to discourage anyone without at least $20,000 from moving here without a job and housing lined up.
