This policy paper summarizes findings on the connections between homelessness and prostitution

Erika Schoot

Samir Goswami

English

IssueLab

The Facts Behind the FacesA.POLICY.PAPER.FROM .THE.CHICAGO .COALITION.FOR.THE. HOMELESSH O M E W A R D . B O U N D . • . W I N T E R . 2 0 0 1Photo: by Chuck Cherney, Chicago TribuneProstitution: Factsand RealitiesIncreasingly in Chicago,advocates and service provid-ers are becoming aware of theconnection between home-lessness and prostitution.  Atany given time, approximately50,000 people are prostituted9in the city of Chicago, almostall of whom are homeless.10Often, the women and youthinvolved in prostitution seekshelter in abandoned buildingsor abusive homes of partners,pimps or customers and donot have a safe, affordableplace of their own.  Access tosafe and affordable housingcan be a viable form of escapeand a first step on a road torecovery.  Furthermore, safehousing for youth and womenat risk can reduce theirvulnerability to exploitation.In a recent ChicagoTribune article entitled, “SexSlavery Called a Replacementof Drug Trafficking,” the authorstated, “With as many as 2million women worldwideforced into sexual slavery, thesex trade seems to havereplaced narcotics as thefavored illegal trade activity.”11Prostitution, a commercialtransaction in which the bodyof a woman or youth is thecommodity,12 is a $14 billiona year industry in the UnitedStates, with an estimated 1.5million customers a week.13Forms of prostitution includestripping, escort services,massage parlors, sex tours,trafficking, pornography andsurvival sex.  At least 90percent of prostitution is pimpcontrolled or run by organizedcrime,14 whose membersutilize violence as a form ofsocial control of the womenand youth. Many prostitutedwomen and youth experiencemultiple rapes and violence bycustomers, pimps and strang-control as a child.” Since 50to 90 percent of women inhomeless shelters are f leeingdomestic violence,23 and 75percent of homeless youthare f leeing physical abuse athome,24 many have few alter-natives and are at risk of beingentrapped in prostitution.Barriers to Escapingthe System25Exploitation and Sexual SlaveryProstitution is a highlyorganized and lucrativeinternational business. Manywomen and youth involved inprostitution have been forcedinto a system of sexual slaveryfor someone else’s commercialbenefit—they are oftenphysically, materially andemotionally prevented fromescaping.Trauma, Abuse and PhysicalHealthThe exploitation andviolence inherent in prostitu-tion often results in severephysical, emotional andpsychological trauma withlong-term effects.  At least 66percent of prostituted womensuffer from post-traumaticstress disorder (PTSD); bycomparison, only 20-30 percentof Vietnam War veterans sufferfrom PTSD.26  Subsequentlyprolonged exposure to abuseand violence, common inprostitution, is a significantbarrier to escape.  Many womenand youth have various physicaland mental health needs andalso require treatment forsexually transmitted diseases.27Chemical DependencyA survivor who worked atan escort service for five yearsstates, “I only had two datesthat weren’t physical contact.I couldn’t stand some of themen, so it was easier to behigh—I then turned to streetPROSTITUTION:A Violent Reality of Homelessnessby Erika Schoot and Samir Goswami“I was homeless for six years. . . . It was rough plentyof nights where I didn’t have anything to eat.  Ihad places to stay, but they were never my own.” 8ers.15 Of those prostituted, 83percent are victims of assaultwith a weapon.16 These highlyorganized networks oftenprey upon and force the mostpolitically and sociallymarginalized members ofsociety into prostitution.17VulnerabilitySince the average age ofentry into prostitution is 14,18many of those prostitutedbecome enslaved as children.Chicago vice squad officersestimate that almost 100percent of juveniles engagedin prostitution have pimps.19Many pimps and customers,the majority of whom aremen, wait at bus terminalsand train stations, seeking outvulnerable boys and girls.20The National RunawaySwitchboard reports that oneout of every three teens on(continued on reverse)the street will be lured intoprostitution within 48 hoursof leaving home.Homeless youth areemotionally and financiallyexploitable and thereforeespecially vulnerable tocoercion and recruitmentinto survival sex, which isany exchange of sex forsurvival needs such as food,shelter, gifts, money or drugs.Between 100,000 and300,000 children are sexuallyexploited through prostitu-tion in the United States peryear.21  Approximately 90percent of those prostitutedare survivors of sexualabuse.22 As one survivorstates, “The cycle of prostitu-tion was easy for me to getinto because I had beenmolested as a child.  I felt asense of revenge getting paidas an adult, because I had noFACTS: 84 percent of those prostituted report current or past homelessness1 50,000 people are prostituted2 in the city of Chicago at any giventime, almost all of whom are homeless.3 95-99 percent of those prostituted have chemical dependency issues4 66 percent of those prostituted suffer from post-traumatic stressdisorder5 14 is the average age of entry into prostitution6 90 percent of those prostituted are survivors of sexual violence suchas incest and sexual assault7C H I C AG O . C O A L I T I O N . F O R . T H E . H O M E L E S ST H E . F A C T S . B E H I N D . T H E . F A C E Sprostitution to keep up thehabit.” In order to cope withpast or current sexual violencein their lives, many prostitutedwomen and youth use drugsor alcohol; and those alreadyaddicted may be coerced intoprostitution by pimps andjohns in exchange for drugs.Eventually some may tradesex for drugs on their own tosatisfy their addictions.CriminalizationMany women are incarcer-ated on prostitution-relatedcharges, including charges fordrug possession and usage.Upon release, many of thesewomen do not have a stableplace of their own or thesupport needed to achieveself-sufficiency, and are oftenprostituted again.Access to Services for YouthCurrently there is no placea homeless minor can legallyaccess long-term services.Youth on the run can stay atemergency shelters only for afinite period of time.  Such alack of options makes youthmore vulnerable to pimps andprostitution.Community ResponseResidents of Chicago’s 14thand 18th districts are currentlybanding together and march-ing against women and youthwho are being prostituted onthe streets.  Such action fails toaddress and eradicate thecommodification of womenand youth and further victim-izes those prostituted.Breaking the Barriers:HousingAffordable Housing DevelopmentThe definition of who ishomeless should be expandedto include those who aretrapped in systems of prostitu-tion.  Subsequently, an alreadycritical lack of affordablehousing seems even morecritical, especially whencharacterized as part of asolution to assist thosesurviving and f leeing violentand abusive systems or as apreventive measure thatdecreases vulnerability.Collective advocacy aroundaffordable housing develop-ment should also includerepresentation of those whoare trapped in systems ofprostitution.Transitional Housing withServicesWomen and youth in needshould have access to transi-tional housing programswhere they can accessservices in the form of jobtraining and education,support groups, trauma andabuse counseling, and sub-stance abuse treatment.Breaking the Barriers:Law EnforcementWomen and youth shouldnot be criminalized for beingforced into prostitution. Forthe women and youth, prosti-tution should be regarded as asystem of violence, not alifestyle option. The focus oflaw enforcement should be toincrease the arrests of pimps,johns and organized networksthat profit from the traffickingof women and youth.  The U.S.federal government shouldconvene a task force onprostitution to conductresearch on alternatives toincarceration, identify gaps inservices and recommendstrategies to address criminalelements, trafficking andprofiteering.Breaking the Barriers:ServicesComprehensive Service MechanismThe Continuum of Care, aplanning body in Chicago forhomeless services, should becognizant of the inextricablelink between prostitution andhomelessness.  Advocatesshould have representation atthe continuum level to raiseawareness and to press forresources for prostitution-related services. Partnershipsshould form between home-less shelter service agenciesand sexual assault serviceagencies to provide systematiccounseling and interventionservices to those entering theshelter system. Membersshould also collaborate withnational and internationalorganizations that are combat-ing the sexual exploitation andtrafficking of women andyouth.Family Violence Option (FVO)Illinois should adopt the FVO,which allows for increasedflexibility in applying programrequirements of TemporaryAssistance for Needy Families(TANF) for recipients escapingdomestic violence. The FVOshould be expanded to thosewomen escaping systems ofprostitution.Youth ProgramsIllinois law needs to bechanged to allow for thepartial emancipation ofhomeless youth so they canlegally access services.Standards should be set foryouth programs, and fundingshould be drastically increasedto provide needed services,including prostitution-relatedservices, for homeless youth.Substance Abuse TreatmentHaymarket Center in Chicagois an exemplary treatmentfacility that works to thor-oughly address addictionissues. Long-term residentialand extensive outpatientservices, similar to thoseoffered at Haymarket, shouldbe expanded throughout thecity with further attentiongiven to abuse and traumacounseling.Breaking the Barriers:Community ActionInstead of scapegoatingwomen and youth on thestreets, residents of communi-ties in Chicago shouldconcentrate their efforts ondiscouraging clients andpimps, who have physical,emotional and material controlover the women and youthbeing prostituted.  Theatmosphere created by thepresence of prostitution in agiven community creates aculture that perpetuatesviolence towards and thecommodification of womenthat extends beyond thosebeing prostituted to allwomen and youth in thecommunity.  Communitiesshould focus their efforts ondeconstructing such a cultureby concentrating on pimpand john behavior.ConclusionAs a society we need tostop glamorizing pimping andcease viewing prostitution asan individual lifestyle choice.Prostitution is a system ofviolence committed against awoman or youth as a result ofa society that condonesmisogyny and racism.  A trulyegalitarian society, void ofviolence and homelessness,cannot be achieved withouteradicating the commercialsexual exploitation of womenand youth.1  Melissa Farley and Howard Barkan, “Prostitution, Violence againstWomen and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder,” Women & Health 27, no. 3(1998): 37-49.2 Use of the term prostituted reflects the view that prostitution is an actcommitted against an individual and not a lifestyle choice.3  Genesis House, Fact Sheet (1998).4  Genesis House, Fact Sheet (1998).5  Melissa Farley, Isin Baral, Merab Kiremire, and Ufuk Sezgin,“Prostitution in Five Countries: Violence and Post-traumatic StressDisorder,” Feminism & Psychology 8, no. 4 (1998): 405-26.6  D. Kelly Weisberg, Children of the Night: A Study of AdolescentProstitution (Lexington, Mass., Lexington Books: 1985).7  Harlan, Rodgers, and Slattery, Issues of Sexual Violence andExploitation (1981), quoted in  PRIDE (From PRostitution toIndependence, Dignity, and Equality), TeenPRIDE and the ProstitutionIntervention Project Handbook, 2000.8  From a survivor of prostitution, name withheld to respectconfidentiality.9  Use of the term prostituted reflects the view that prostitution is an actcommitted against an individual and not a lifestyle choice.10  Genesis House, Fact Sheet (1998).11  Chicago Tribune (02/23/2000).12  Chicago Coalition for the Homeless recognizes that many adult menare involved in systems of prostitution.  However, addressing the serviceand advocacy needs of men is beyond the scope of this analysis.13  Genesis House, Fact Sheet (1998).14  Evelina Giobbe, WHISPER Oral History Project (Minneapolis: 1987).15  Genesis House, Fact Sheet (1998).16  http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/17  Chris Grussendorf, SE Escape.18  Weisberg, Children of the Night.19  Based on conversations with Chicago Police Department vice squadofficers.20  Harlan et al., “Issues of Sexual Violence and Exploitation.”21  World Congress against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children,End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and the Trafficking ofChildren for Sexual Exploitation [ECPAT]: Europe and North AmericaRegional Profile (meeting held in Stockholm, Sweden, August 1996), p.70.22  Harlan et al., “Issues of Sexual Violence and Exploitation.”23  Heartland Alliance for Human Rights and Human Needs, PromisesMade, Promises Broken (1990).24  Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, Alone after Dark: A Survey ofHomeless Youth in Chicago (1994).25  The following list of barriers is by no means exhaustive.  Prostitution is a complex system, with many barriers to escape.26  Farley and Barkan, “Prostitution, Violence against Women.”27  Many women and youth need to be treated for physical injuriescaused by johns and pimps, as well as for health needs caused byexposure to violence and homelessness.

Prostitution: A Violent Reality of Homelessness

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Prostitution: A Violent Reality of Homelessness

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