Portland is known as the City of Roses. Portland has the common motto “Keep Portland Weird,” on which it prides itself. Portland is home to local coffee shops, breweries, Voodoo Doughnuts and hipsters. But there are also other notable aspects of Portland—the kind people do not like to talk about.
Rose City exploitation Portland’s human trafficking crisis
Portland is known as the City of Roses. Portland has the common motto “Keep Portland Weird,” on which it prides itself. Portland is home to local coffee shops, breweries, Voodoo Doughnuts and hipsters. But there are also other notable aspects of Portland—the kind people do not like to talk about.
Unfortunately, Portland is an ideal hub for human trafficking. Human trafficking is perceived as taking place across the world in areas such as Thailand or India, and people do not realize that it happens here. It is about time that Portland woke up from that fantasy and started facing the facts.
According to the United States Department of Justice, approximately 300,000 youth are trafficked for sexual exploitation. Ignoring human trafficking in Oregon, and especially in Portland, is not going to make it go away. It is only going to make it worse as traffickers will realize that they can get away with it here. It’s time to crack down on this serious issue because this affects everyone who lives not only in the Portland metro area, but Oregon in general.
Thankfully, Portland has recently woken up from its dream of its perfect little world and realized the harsh reality. The Portland Police Bureau has reported an average of five human trafficking cases per week. At least two of the victims are juvenile. It is estimated that children as young as 12 are forced into prostitution and that a pimp earns $800 to $1,000 a day from each juvenile victim.
As a result, the Portland Police Bureau has doubled the size of its human trafficking detail. Multnomah County has established a task force, the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Steering Committee, using $500,000 to take action against juvenile trafficking. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden (D) has also introduced legislation that would help to fight human trafficking.
Last December, Wyden, along with Texas Senator John Cornyn (R), presented a bill that would give more enforcement power against traffickers and help victims of sexual trafficking. Their bill plans to fund extra police officers, prosecutors, establish shelters and provide counseling for victims in six states. The bill would also provide funding for legal aid, education and job training.
Currently, there are no shelter beds that are dedicated to juvenile human trafficking in the Portland metro area. Hopefully that will soon change.
The City of Portland plans to set aside $285,000 to fund four to eight shelter beds with the Janus Youth Programs and the Sexual Assault Resource Center. The funds would also provide treatment for juvenile human trafficking victims and two additional victim advocate jobs for a one-year period.
The Sexual Assault Resource Center is a vital place in combating human trafficking in the Portland metro area. The center is based in Beaverton and provides thorough support to victims with a 24-hour crisis line, hospital visits, case management, prevention education and outreach. It focuses on juvenile victims of human trafficking.
The center only has two advocates who work with juvenile victims in Portland. The money would let the center allocate four advocates to Portland.
It appears that human trafficking and juvenile human trafficking is beginning to be recognized in Portland, but the job is not done and we cannot stop here. Now that officials are starting to acknowledge that human trafficking happens here, it is time for the good people of Portland to do so as well.
The word is out, now action needs to follow. We cannot continue to ignore the human trafficking issue as we have in the past. This is something that we cannot afford to put on the back burner.
Human trafficking happens here; it is time to act. ?
