Toronto’s Covenant House opening its doors to sex-trafficking victims

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Next month, Covenant House is planning to open the doors to a safe house where young sex-trafficking victims can escape the industry and begin building new lives.

The city's first longer-term housing program for victims of sex trafficking and exploitation will also offer much-needed counselling services, life and job skills training, and educational support. Up to seven residents between the ages of 16 and 24 will be able to live there for two years.

Casandra Diamond, a member of Covenant House's sex-trafficking advisory committee, knows very well how the program will help vulnerable young women. Ms. Diamond, 39, works with trafficking victims and is a survivor herself, having worked in the sex trade for 10 years.

Why is this housing program needed?

It's essential for young girls and women to be able to really regain their lives. The housing initiative is extremely important because without a safe place to go and a long-term place that they can rely on, there's really no actual hope in getting out. It's quite an incentive for the girls who are in to say, "Hey wait, maybe there is a place I can go." We have many people who need these services.

How would a spot in a housing program like this have helped you?

Something like this would have been helpful for me to maybe decide to get out a bit earlier than I had. I was very isolated when I had gotten out of the industry. I didn't have anybody to talk to. There was nowhere to go at the time. There was no services developed for persons exiting the sex industry. When you leave the industry, you leave everything behind. You literally have nothing. So with [the house] in play, then you can be able to start to kind of focus on the things that you need to be able to do to really regain your life to recover. With the physical pieces being met, that allows you an opportunity to really kind of handle the pieces that are broken on the inside of the person.

Can you tell me about your experience working in this industry and how you found yourself being trafficked?

I had met a guy and the guy started showing me affection. He had power and I felt protected and safe and loved by him. None of it was genuine, of course, and so it was no problem for him to, you know, [say], "Oh here, let's just do this." You know, he was just kind of selling me my own dream: "We're going to have a life, we're going to have a family, we're going to have a house. We just have to do this for a little bit." It was always we. But he was never for sale. [Laughs] Dammit, the things you know now, right? I really believed that this person loved me. And clearly, you do not sell the people you love to other men. But I didn't know that then.

How were you able to leave that life behind?

In my case, I was not able to just leave. I actually had to wait for him to break up with me. You don't actually have power or control when you're in the industry. Other people do. And if it's not other people, then it's addiction or it's poverty or it's childhood abuse or it's neglect. These are the things that have power over you, that are informing your decision when you're typically in the industry.

Now you work with women who have been caught up in sex trafficking. What are their lives like?

Some of them are super messy because they're still involved. Another type of person that I work with are those who are actually exiting the sex industry and they're doing their best, like they are giving it their best shot to really kind of handle and tackle some of the root causes or the problems that have really got them involved in the industry to begin with.

How hard is it for them to exit the trade?

It's very hard. For one girl to exit the industry, it takes many, many attempts normally. And it does often because they don't have the amount of support that's required. So I'm really looking forward to changing some of those stats.

This interview has been condensed and edited.