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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise today to join Senator Leahy, the
ranking member of the Committee on the Judiciary, in explaining an
amendment we have filed, amendment No. 290, to the Justice for Victims
of Trafficking Act. I wish to take this opportunity to thank Senators
Ayotte, Murkowski, Heitkamp, and Baldwin for also cosponsoring our
amendment and for their strong support.
Our amendment would reauthorize the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act
programs which expired in 2013. These three programs--the Street
Outreach Program, the Basic Center Program, and the Transitional Living
Program--have helped thousands of our homeless youth meet their
immediate needs and provide long-term residential services for those
who, sadly, cannot be safely reunited with their families.
The Street Outreach Program helps homeless and runaway youth find
stable housing and connects them with the treatment, counseling, and
crisis prevention they need. A central goal of this program is to
prevent sexual exploitation and abuse.
The Basic Center Program helps community-based providers meet the
basic needs of shelter, food, and clothing for homeless youth.
The Transitional Living Program supports long-term housing services
that help our homeless youth enter stable living environments and
develop critical life skills.
The amendment Senator Leahy and I and our cosponsors are offering
complements the underlying bill by addressing prevention, intervention,
and recovery services for the victims of sex trafficking--particularly
among one of the most vulnerable populations, and that is our homeless
youth. According to the Institute of Medicine and the National Resource
Council, homelessness is one of the most common risk factors for sex
trafficking. Without access to food, shelter, and social supports,
homeless youth too often turn to what is termed survival sex--a way to
trade sex for a place to sleep and other basic necessities. Another
recent report found that one in four homeless youth are victims of sex
trafficking or engaged in survival sex. Approximately 48 percent of
homeless youth have done so because they did not have a safe place to
stay. Our amendment strengthens the existing programs by ensuring that
service providers know how to identify trafficking victims and give
these youth the support they need.
In Maine, our homeless shelters are critical partners in the fight to
end human trafficking. In Portland, the Preble Street Resource Center
has used Runaway and Homeless Youth Act resources to connect young
people who need food, safe shelter, health services, and educational
support with those who can provide those services. The Preble Street
Anti-Trafficking Coalition is currently helping approximately 50
trafficking victims--whose ages range from 15 to 42--start new
lives. There are more than 1.6 million homeless teens in the United
States, an astonishing number. A growing number of homeless youth
identify as LGBT, and it is estimated that up to 40 percent of runaway
and homeless youth are LGBT. Our amendment would also ensure that those
seeking services through these Federal programs are not denied
assistance based on their race, color, religion, national origin, sex,
sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. All homeless young
people need access to safe beds at night and services during the day so
they will never have to choose between selling their bodies and a safe
place to sleep.
The stand-alone bill on which our amendment is based was reported out
of the Committee on the Judiciary during the last Congress with an
overwhelmingly strong bipartisan vote of 15 to 3. It has the support of
nearly 270 organizations, including service providers, anti-trafficking
advocates, and many faith-based organizations that serve homeless youth
each and every day. Covenant House, the largest service provider for
runaway and homeless youth, strongly supports our reauthorization of
these programs.
Let me thank Senator Leahy for working so hard and for working to
incorporate important feedback into our amendment, such as applying the
nondiscrimination clause only to the runaway and homeless youth
programs and clarifying the continued ability to provide sex-specific
shelters and programming, such as all-girls shelters or all-male
shelters.
Let me take this opportunity to also commend Senator Cornyn and
Senator Klobuchar for their work on the Justice for Victims of
Trafficking Act, a bill I have proudly cosponsored. The policies and
tools included in this bill are important pieces of the Federal
response to the horrific crime of human trafficking. Congress must do
more to provide law enforcement with the tools it needs to pursue to
end sex trafficking and to also support preventive programs such as the
runaway and homeless youth programs that help those who fall victim to
traffickers. In many ways our bill is the bookend for the bill that is
pending on the Senate floor because it focuses on the service end in
helping those who are most vulnerable, our young people.
By providing homeless young people with the support and services they
need, we can help prevent them from ever being trafficked in the first
place. The runaway and homeless youth programs have provided a lifeline
and housing for America's homeless and for its human trafficked youth
for 40 years. They are a vital tool in addressing these serious
problems. I urge my colleagues to support our bipartisan amendment.
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