County human trafficking safe house for girls closes

Survivors will be placed in existing Place of Hope foster programs.

PALM BEACH GARDENS — A Palm Beach County safe house for girls who were victims of human trafficking has closed, officials confirmed Monday.

The decision to close the safe house, known as Hope House, in January was made in favor of placing trafficking survivors into the existing foster programs of Place of Hope, a Palm Beach Gardens-based nonprofit, said Charles Bender, its chief executive.

Hope House, a collaboration between Place of Hope and the Christ Fellowship church in Palm

Beach Gardens, opened in 2012 as a faith-based safe house for girls.

The house — its location was never made public — had four beds. Bender estimates that his organization, which focuses on minors, sees about five to seven cases of human trafficking a year.

“Really, it was just a better fit to place them into existing facilities and programs,” he said.

Place of Hope is the largest provider of traditional foster care in

the six-county region from Broward to Indian River counties, according to its website. The organization also has on-campus foster care and housing for teens after they turn 18.

Human trafficking is described as the use of force, fraud or coercion on another person for the pur- pose of labor, domestic ser- vitude or commercial sexual exploitation.

Over the past year, human trafficking — described by some as modern-day slavery — has been a growing focus for law-enforcement agencies and victims rights advocates. The Palm Beach County State Read The Post’s coverage of human trafficking in South Florida at PalmBeachPost. com/humantrafficking.

Attorney’s Office last year created a task force to target trafficking.

Florida ranks third in the nation for reported cases of human trafficking, according to the nonprofit organization, the Polaris Project, which tracks calls to the national human trafficking hotline.

Bonnie Jo Daniels, the project director for Hope for Freedom, Christ Fellowship’s anti-human trafficking program, said the organization has seen a growing need to offer programs for adults.

Recent statistics show the average victim of human trafficking in Palm Beach County is women ranging in age from 20 to 30.

“We have more of an adult problem right now,” Daniels said.

Hope House was one of at least two safe houses in Palm Beach County dedicated to human-trafficking victims. Currently, the Hepzibah House provides housing and rehabilitation services for women. Like Hope House, its sponsors have declined to disclose its location.

Daniels said Christ Fellowship plans to expand services it offers to human-trafficking victims, including mentoring and tutoring.