Mayor London Breed, along with service providers, held a press conference at Larkin Street’s HQ to announce that San Francisco has received a $9.3 million grant from the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to provide housing and services for San Francisco youth who are survivors or at risk of human trafficking, specifically commercial sexual exploitation (CSE). Youth at risk of CSE can include young people experiencing homelessness or youth involved in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems.
Grant partners include the San Francisco Department on the Status of Women, Freedom Forward, and Huckleberry Youth, San Francisco Human Services Agency, Larkin Street Youth Services, Family Builders, WestCoast Children’s Clinic, Edgewood Center for Children and Families, Claire’s House, Learning for Action, and the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center. This grant will allow San Francisco to build off of these existing service providers and expand housing options and other services available to young people who have experienced or are at risk of CSE.
As part of the collaboration, we will work with Huckleberry Youth Programs to provide young people with immediate safety from the streets and will help them explore their options for a more stable housing situation.
“Any young person who is homeless or experiencing exploitation in our streets is one too many. We must do better in San Francisco,” said Mayor Breed. “This funding will allow us to develop programs and provide services that help our most vulnerable residents and survivors of commercial sexual exploitation, and prevent chronic homelessness in our City.”
Huge thank you to Senator Scott Wiener and Assemblymember Phil Ting for writing letters of support for the grant and Assemblymember David Chiu, for helping establish the Mayor’s Task Force on Anti-Human Trafficking.
Grant partners will begin providing housing placement and services in winter 2019.
