For years, survivors of sex trafficking in Oakland have struggled to secure financial support, housing, jobs, and other services.

A new proposal could change that, creating a dedicated revenue stream for survivors of sexual exploitation while penalizing those who buy and sell victims.

Councilmember Charlene Wang announced plans to support survivors at a press conference Wednesday morning at Oakland City Hall alongside multiple city and county officials and leaders of local nonprofits. The Human Trafficking Survivor Support Fund would be funded with fines levied against buyers and exploiters.

“Oakland is now moving to the leading edge of a new enforcement model focused on demand-reduction — one that complements, not replaces, criminal enforcement by adding city-level administrative penalties,” said Wang, appointed by Mayor Barbara Lee to lead the city’s Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force.

Wang, whose district includes part of “the Blade,” a stretch of International Boulevard known for sex trafficking, says she and her team are finalizing the legislation and will introduce it as a city ordinance by the end of January, which is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

The idea is to impose a $2,500 fine against nuisance businesses like hotels where sexual exploitation takes place, as well as a $4,000 fine against buyers for the first violation. Wang said she’s still working to determine the exact penalties against traffickers, but hopes to “maximize that fine.”

The money would be reinvested into Oakland-based organizations that provide a range of services to human trafficking survivors, like street-level outreach, emergency housing, job opportunities, mental health support, and legal aid.

“These fines will not disappear into a general fund,” the councilmember said. “They will be reinvested directly into survival, exit, and rehabilitation services that operate locally.”

Wang plans to implement some form of oversight to ensure the funds are properly spent, but didn’t offer specifics.

Last year, Wang successfully amended the city budget to allocate $700,000 annually to the Oakland Police Department’s Vice/Child Exploitation Unit, which investigates human trafficking cases.

But Wang says that alone was not enough, noting that the city will also partner with the nonprofit Oakland Fund for Public Innovation to raise philanthropic funds for exit services for survivors.

This initiative is also personal for Wang.

“I was once a child who was being sexually abused in the home and nearly ran away,” Wang said. “This effort is about whether we accept a city where exploitation is normalized, or whether we choose to build a city that protects the most vulnerable and holds abusers accountable.”

Wang says she plans to introduce her proposal to create the Human Trafficking Survivor Support Fund by the end of January, which is National Human Trafficking Prevention Month. Credit: Roselyn Romero/The Oaklandside

Leaders of several Oakland nonprofits were also at the press conference and shared their strategies to support survivors of sexual exploitation.

Dr. Aisha Mays, founding director of Dream Youth Clinic, told reporters that her nonprofit is launching a mobile clinic for sex trafficking victims on the Blade this week. The clinic will provide free STI screenings, pregnancy tests, birth control, hygiene and menstrual products, fentanyl test strips, Narcan kits, and connections to legal, behavioral health, and substance addiction services.

Services will be offered on International Boulevard between 15th and 16th avenues every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon and Friday from 1-4 p.m. The schedule and location may change based on input from young survivors on the Blade, said Mays.

“Medical care for youth impacted by human trafficking has been missing for a long time. This is the first time this has been done for free,” she told The Oaklandside.

Speaking at the press conference, Interim Police Chief James Beere announced OPD is ramping up anti-trafficking enforcement operations along International Boulevard this month by more than doubling the number of officers along the corridor, using technology, and deploying undercover officers. Since the start of those operations, 10 men have been arrested and booked into Santa Rita Jail and are scheduled to appear in court later this month, according to Beere.

“It’s not going to stop,” Beere said. “In fact, I expect that number, unfortunately, to be higher by the end of the month.”

The fines proposed by Wang wouldn’t be the only penalty levied against buyers, traffickers, and so-called “problem hotels.” At the press conference, Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson said a new state law, Assembly Bill 379, took effect this year that increases fines for exploiters and makes it a misdemeanor to loiter in a public place to buy sex.

Jones Dickson also said her office’s H.E.A.T. Watch program, which stands for human exploitation and trafficking, is “more robust than it has ever been,” prosecuting people involved in sexually exploiting children.

While Black residents make up roughly 20% of Oakland’s population, Black women and girls represent over 60% of sex trafficking survivors locally, according to a 2019 report from Alameda County’s H.E.A.T. Watch. A 2022 study from WestCoast Children’s Clinic found that the rate of youth showing signs of exploitation in Alameda County is more than double the state average, with victims often entering the trade between ages 12 and 14.

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