Criminal Records, Housing Discrimination, and Systemic Obstacles Keep Trafficking Survivors like Helen Fighting for Stability Long After Escaping Exploitation
Trigger Alert: The article you’re about to read contains descriptions of homelessness and human trafficking that can be graphic. It also deals with suicide ideation.
The idea of being sex trafficked – bought, sold, and stripped of human dignity – is a nightmarish scenario most people couldn’t fathom, let alone survive. But imagine how much harder it would be to overcome human trafficking if you exited it from the shadows of shifty accommodations into the desolate state of episodic homelessness.
Due, in large part, to unjust legislation, this is the unfortunate but common scenario for many human trafficking survivors. All too often, victims of human trafficking are used to commit crimes with their bodies to compensate the people holding them captive. They might be forced or coerced to engage in illicit sex acts, to carry, sell, or use illegal drugs, to lie, cheat, steal, and rob. While these crimes are committed under duress, the charges these victims incur can follow them for a lifetime, from state to state, making it nearly impossible for them to acquire stable housing and steady income. Additionally, these criminal records can be expensive to expunge.
Today, we sat down face-to-face with Helen Stiver, a sex trafficking survivor who now serves as the program director for EverFree, a nonprofit organization with a mission to uplift, empower, and inform.
As a prelude to EverFree’s recently launched film, “Reclaiming Freedom,” which features a series of first-hand accounts, Helen candidly shared her story with us.
“I’m a native Californian, born and raised in California. My traffic experience began at the age of 19 here in Southern California,” Stiver began. “Young and close to home, that’s how many people are groomed…”
Forced to Be A Criminal: Helen Stiver Recalls a Life of Coercion and Strife that Cast a Long, Dark Shadow on Her Future
“I won’t go into the details of the sex trafficking activities explicitly, but I will say that it lasted over 8 years. During that period, I was with 3 separate traffickers. I was trafficked in several states across the United States.”
“Trafficking across state lines is common, and it increases the track record of criminality. I was arrested several times in California, which prompted my trafficker to move us cross country to New York. From New York, being a kind of East Coast base, we traveled to several other states and regions periodically, including Massachusetts, Atlantic City, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC.”
“Eventually, due to several arrests and forced criminality, the trafficker moved his operation to Miami, Florida, and that was where I ultimately exited my trafficking situation. I’m a little bit older. This experience happened more than 30 years ago.”
Stiver paused, recalling the precise time that she exited her plight.
“30 years ago,” Stiver continued, “September is when I exited the exploitation. However, as a result of my exploitation, it has taken me many years to get to where I am now, not only because I didn’t have higher education because I was trafficked during my formative years, but also because I had 8 years without any job history. So, I had no resume, CV, job experience, references, or anything else.”
“All I had was an extensive criminal record spanning several states. That record boasted a felony and a misdemeanor, among other charges like direct possession, all of which were incurred against my will. Having a felony record as a result of my trafficking experience adversely affected me, and it continues to do so to this day.”
Invisible People: Are there any laws that protect victims of trafficking from incurring criminal records?
Helen Stiver: “There’s the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which started in 2000 and has subsequently been reauthorized with different things being added that help people now, but I was not afforded any of that.”
Invisible People: You mentioned a litany of criminal charges. Why would someone being sex trafficked get arrested on charges that are related to drugs or other crimes.?
Helen Stiver: “Illegal substances may be used by the trafficker as a means of coercion or maintaining control. This means that a sex trafficking victim might be forced to take illegal drugs. Also, in my situation, illegal substances were provided to clients as an extra service. I was charged with cocaine possession as a result of my trafficking experiences because that’s what we did. So, the charges were both for personal use and provision to the clients.”
Invisible People: Can you tell us more about the ongoing impact of homeless criminalization on trafficking survivors, including lingering criminal records, housing, financial aid, and voting rights?
Helen Stiver: “I can talk a little bit about that from a personal perspective. Things have changed slowly but surely. Things are changing. Felons used to not have the right to vote. So, for many years, I could not vote as a felon. Felons with drug charges were not allowed to get federal student aid previously. So, I was unable to acquire financial backing for higher education pursuits. Recently, that’s changed, too.”
“In 2021, there was a lot that changed. I think those changes are coming about as a result of providers speaking out and advocates supporting alterations in law. I’m going through concierge and expungement, but my case is very complicated, given that I have a criminal record in several states.”
“It’s not uncommon, though. Many people are trafficked across borders, whether it’s state borders or country borders. So, to have that record expunged and vacated can mean a lot of different things because different states have different laws.”
“And because different states have different laws, people are licensed to practice law on a state-by-state basis in many cases. Therefore, I can’t necessarily have a lawyer in California try to have my record expunged in New York. I have to get another lawyer in New York.”
Invisible People: Is it expensive to need multiple lawyers in varying states?
Helen Stiver: “There are some services for those who cannot afford it. For example, there is The Survivor Reentry Project, which is operated by the Freedom Network that provides connections to pro bono lawyers. They don’t provide the legal counsel themselves, but they do provide the connection to pro bono lawyers who will assist with it.”
“But it’s a long process depending on how long your record is, how many states your record contains, what is on your record, etc. Also, you have to be emotionally ready to do that because you have to qualify. And the way you qualify is you have to tell your story, you know, give a statement of your exploitation. And not everybody is ready to do that because that’s very emotionally, you know, traumatizing.”
Invisible People: Are there other aspects of the process that can be triggering?
Helen Stiver: “Absolutely! For example, you have to get fingerprinted to get your records, and fingerprinting can be emotionally traumatizing for someone who had to be fingerprinted while being arrested for crimes they were forced by a trafficker to commit. However, fingerprinting is necessary to open up the possibility of employment. And we all need to have a job, right? So, it’s all interconnected, the legality of everything, from the charges to the fingerprinting to the possibility of expungement. A clean record is the best way to access stable and affordable housing.”
“You must have money coming in to be able to afford to rent. If having a criminal record prevents you from getting a job, this prevents you from having money, which prevents you from having safe housing. It’s just all connected.”
From One Trauma to Another, Helen Stiver Explains How Stereotypes and Criminalization Caused Her to Become Homeless After Being Trafficked
Invisible People: Can you give our readers some background on how escaping trafficking caused you to become homeless and/or unstably housed?
Helen Stiver: “Certainly. So, the trafficker that I was with for the longest was seven and a half years, and it was a business for them. They had several people that they trafficked. I was exited due to my age because, after the seven and a half years, I was not profitable. So exiting wasn’t as difficult as it may be for other people. It was kind of a mutual agreement. I was at the age where my mind was fully formed, and I felt like this is not the way to live a life, you know.”
“I had considered suicide. I had actually even considered homicide, unfortunately. That’s just where my frame of mind was after so many years of what I term brainwashing. So, we had a conversation, and I was able to leave. But I absolutely attribute that to me not being profitable. So the trafficker was thinking why pay for housing and food and transportation and clothing and maintenance for someone who’s not bringing money in is basically how they saw it. As crazy as this sounds, when you’re being trafficked, you’re housed.”
“Sometimes it’s not the best housing situation and other people may have very comfortable housing accommodations comparatively. During my traffic experience, I lived in hotels, so that’s very transient. I understand that that is considered a kind of homelessness.”
“But during my last situation, I was very nicely housed, so I just had to leave my whole situation. I had already been relocated all across the country by that point, far away from my family and anybody I knew. And after being isolated for 8 years from anyone that you know, you have zero connections.”
“A lot of people think of being homeless as being out on the street. But there is also transitional homelessness and episodic homelessness, as well as housing instability. After having to leave my so-called home when I left my trafficker, I then was forced to endure unstable housing situations, having to live with friends and family, couch surfing, etc. I was not precisely homeless on the street, but I put myself in bad situations as a means to being housed. I was in abusive relationships after my trafficking experience, as a means to be housed. And therefore, that housing was unsafe and unstable.”
Talk to Your Legislators About Drafting Laws that Protect Sex Trafficking Survivors from Housing Discrimination.
The intersection between human trafficking and homelessness is wrought with obstacles for survivors. Having a criminal record as a result of acts committed while caught in the clutches of a trafficker can lead to a lifetime of housing instability.
According to EverFree’s Advocacy and Communications Manager Krisha Mae Asinas Cabrera, J.D., housing advocates should support legislation similar to or better than the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act.
“We see a lot of these intersections and vulnerabilities,” Cabrera explained. “I couldn’t have said it better myself than what Helen already said.”
“Having a criminal record prevents individuals from finding housing and accessing jobs. One of the main goals of expungement, I remember as a law student, was so that people can access the resources that they have been barred from,” Cabrera continued. “So vacatur and expungement are a huge part of enabling survivors to access resources that allow them to move forward with their lives. It’s key to helping them reunite and be a part of society so that they aren’t just forever barred from the resources everybody needs.”
Human trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar industry, and the person who pays the highest price is the one who is sold. Nobody should have to endure an adolescence of trafficking followed by a lifetime of homelessness. Talk to your legislators about protecting survivors today.
