DOWNTOWN – A new center in downtown San Diego will offer young people who have been victims of sex trafficking a safe place to find food and mental health care, along with other resources, including a path to permanent housing.
Olive Crest, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing child abuse and strengthening families in crisis, already provides apartments in San Diego for teenagers wishing to escape sexual exploitation. Next month, it will open a drop-in resource center downtown.
Donald Verleur, the CEO at Olive Crest, said the new location is “designed to be a welcoming place where the kids can come in and feel safe.”
“These kids have been lied to. They do not trust adults. They do not trust institutions,” Verleur said at a news conference May 14 announcing the new space. “And so our goal with this drop-in center is to build trust and relationship that when they feel safe, that we could, when they request, find a safe place for them.”
Verleur said a significant number of the children served by his organization have been involved in human trafficking.
One such person is Lily, a self-identified victim of sex trafficking who did not wish to use her last name.
Lily said she is living proof that healing after sexual exploitation is possible, thanks to organizations like Olive Crest. She said she found help at a drop-in center run by a different nonprofit before making her way to Olive Crest, a Southern California organization that has been providing support to children and families in crisis for over 50 years.
“When I got out of sex trafficking while in foster care, I was exhausted — physically, emotionally and spiritually. I didn’t know who I was outside of survival, and I didn’t know if there was a future for someone like me,” she said.
“But Olive Crest showed me something I didn’t have before. It was hope. They didn’t just offer resources, they offered belief. They saw a future for me when I couldn’t see it for myself.”
Filling a gap in San Diego’s child trafficking response
Verleur said San Diego is a hot spot for sex trafficking because of its numerous hotels and vacation rentals as well as ports of entry.
Olive Crest already has apartments in San Diego available for 16- to 18-year-olds wishing to escape sexual exploitation. The organization also helps place younger children, ages 12-15, with local foster families who have been vetted by the nonprofit. Minors in need of more structured care can also be sent to Olive Crest’s Hope Refuge Campus in Santa Barbara.
Alfredo Guardado, director of the county’s Department of Child and Family Well-Being, said Olive Crest’s new drop-in center will fill a gap in San Diego’s child trafficking response. The facility is the group’s third Southern California drop-in center that has opened this year, and the organization has a regionwide network planned.
Guardado said that since human trafficking does not follow county lines, deploying resources regionally is helpful so that children who are being moved around can access a familiar organization.
The drop-in center will include a café, therapy room, nap area, computers and places to simply hang out. The location will not be made public in order to protect those who use its services; referrals and word-of-mouth recommendations are expected to bring people in.
The services are meant to help young people break away from human trafficking.
Tina Chang, Olive Crest’s regional program director, said one girl was repeatedly dropped off by her exploiter at another drop-in location, always leaving as soon as he texted her. It took three months before she asked the staff to help get her out.
While that type of relationship-building can be slow, it’s a way to let children know the center is a safe, judgment-free space where they have autonomy, Verleur said.
San Diego County Chief Deputy District Attorney Tracy Prior called Olive Crest’s work “critical in combating child sex abuse.”
“Child trafficking victims cannot get safe if they are unwelcomed, unhoused and unsupported,” said Prior, who oversees multiple divisions in the DA’s office, including victim services and child abuse. “This center takes care of all three.”
Many victims of sex trafficking are runaways, in foster care or homeless, Prior said. A safe housing option can help children who have been driven by desperation into the hands of abusers.
Sex trafficking victims are also getting younger, Prior said, noting that children as young as 13 are now part of her caseload. Overall, she said, sex trafficking is under-reported, particularly among boys.
San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force Special Agent Geanie Franco said many people assume the proximity of the Mexico border helps make San Diego a hot spot for this type of crime. But most of the minors recovered by the task force are local, she said. They also are almost exclusively sex-trafficked, not used for child labor.
“This (center) is important because we need more resources here in San Diego for all of the minors that we recover,” said Franco, who leads the task force. “Since January of this year, we’re already at 29 minors. Last year, it was 47.”
Despite those numbers, she said there may be more cross-border trafficked children who remain underground.
The task force, made up of local, state and regional law enforcement agencies, is one of Olive Crest’s partners for the drop-in center. The space is funded by a $10 million state grant as well as public and private donations.
Padres pitcher Jason Adam is among the private donors. He first learned about Olive Crest at a church service last year, and he and his wife have being helping the organization since.
“When you hear that in such a beautiful city, where everyone should be really living the dream … that there’s tons of kids being exploited sexually at age 13, it can be paralyzing,” Adam said. “I just think it’s devastating. It feels paralyzing to me often to think about these kids out there, but there’s hope.”
