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Shelter for Victims of Human Trafficking to Open in Richmond

Thanks to a $500,000 state grant, central Virginia is getting its first and only shelter for victims of human trafficking.

 

According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, more than 100 cases of human trafficking have been reported in Virginia this year alone. The vast majority of those were cases of sex trafficking. 

Bonnie Price is a nurse who works with those victims. 

“It’s young girls who are college students, it’s young girls who have families and support systems and are coerced into this awful business and they don’t know what they’re getting into," Price says. "I was told by one victim that the emotional abuse that she suffered by the trafficker was far worse than the physical abuse. She said the bruises would heal but the things that he did to her mind, would be very hard to fix.”

Price says, in the past, they’ve had to send victims as far away as Boston to find a space prepared to deal with their physical and emotional needs. But now, they'll have a place close by.

The new shelter is a partnership between Safe Harbor, a victims’ service nonprofit, and Bon Secours health system.

They hope to open in early January, and will begin by providing services to 15 people. Price expects those beds to fill quickly.