{"id":157109,"date":"2026-01-30T22:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T22:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/157109\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T22:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T22:23:10","slug":"oakland-has-a-sex-trafficking-problem-young-people-have-ideas-to-solve-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/157109\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland has a sex trafficking problem. Young people have ideas to solve it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teens and young adults shared their experiences with sex trafficking in Oakland \u2014 and their ideas for solutions \u2014 with city and county leaders at a town hall Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Roughly 40 community members and local leaders packed the Dream Youth Clinic\u2019s office near Jack London Square for the event, including Mayor Barbara Lee, Department of Violence Prevention Chief Holly Joshi, Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, and Councilmember Charlene Wang.<\/p>\n

\u201cHuman trafficking prevention is an important reproductive justice issue and a shared community responsibility,\u201d said LJ, a 17-year-old high school senior. Reproductive justice<\/a> is a movement started by Black women in the 1990s that advocates for bodily autonomy.<\/p>\n

Dr. Aisha Mays, founder and CEO of Dream Youth Clinic<\/a>, a nonprofit providing free reproductive health services to young people of color and LGBTQ+ youth, said the town hall was the first of its kind in Oakland.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur young people are advocating for policy and systems change to put an end to sex trafficking in Oakland and to make our community safer for all of us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Aisha Mays, founder and CEO of Dream Youth Clinic, speaks at a youth-led town hall on sex trafficking in Oakland on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. Credit: Roselyn Romero\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

Most of the youth who spoke at the town hall were Black girls and women, reflecting local and national trafficking trends. Commercial sexual exploitation is hard to track since the vast majority of cases go unreported due to fears of retaliation, the stigma surrounding the issue, and other factors. But records show<\/a> that in Alameda County, Black people make up 61% of human trafficking victims, compared to 15% Latino people and 12% white. And over half of Alameda County human trafficking survivors were foster youth at some point in their lifetime. (Human trafficking includes both sex and labor trafficking.)<\/p>\n

\u201cSex trafficking is a public health issue, and in Oakland, it\u2019s a Black girl health issue,\u201d Mays said.<\/p>\n

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee spoke at the town hall and opened up about the challenges of being a teen mom. \u201cI ended up getting married at 16 because I was pregnant,\u201d she told the youth. \u201cFortunately, I didn\u2019t end up in circumstances that many of our young girls end up in, but believe me, I had a very difficult teenage and early 20s years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wang, whose district encompasses the stretch of International Boulevard where commercial sex work is most prevalent, recently proposed changes<\/a> to city law that would levy fines against buyers and exploiters. Those fines would then be used to fund local nonprofits providing services to sex trafficking survivors, such as housing or temporary shelter, legal aid, or job training.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fentanyl test strips, over-the-counter birth control pills, and other resources are available at the Dream Youth Clinic\u2019s office in Oakland. Credit: Roselyn Romero\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

According to Mays, Dream Youth Clinic recently surveyed 230 Bay Area trafficking survivors ages 25 and under. Seventy percent of them said housing insecurity is a risk factor. Traffickers may promise safety, food, and shelter to vulnerable people, often targeting those in emergency shelters and the foster care system, according to youth at the town hall.<\/p>\n

Some of the young people who spoke at the town hall explained that commercial sexual exploitation manifests in different ways. There\u2019s street-level trafficking, which is seen on Oakland streets like International Boulevard and East 12th Street. And trafficking through social media is also becoming increasingly common.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, so many people will fake their identity to get young girls to meet up with them,\u201d said one of the youth speakers.<\/p>\n

Some said they grew up seeing a family member being sexually exploited or exploiting others. \u201cFor me, I\u2019ve seen a person in my own house being exploited,\u201d said Emonnie.<\/p>\n

Some youth at the town hall asked to be identified only by their first name or initials to protect their privacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have not myself been sex-trafficked, but I did come from a parent who has been,\u201d said LJ. \u201cGrowing up with that, and with her not knowing how to navigate her emotions, I lived in a lot of her fears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exploiters often employ two tactics to lure someone into the sex trade. The \u201cboyfriend pimp,\u201d sometimes referred to as the \u201cRomeo pimp,\u201d gains a person\u2019s trust by treating them nicely or buying them food or clothes, but over time coerces them into trafficking. The \u201cgorilla pimp\u201d typically uses violence or blackmail to force someone into commercial sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n

Some of the youth at the town hall said they\u2019ve seen their peers pressured into exploitative situations by friends at school or by a significant other. \u201cThey\u2019ll know you\u2019re looking for love and say things you want to hear. It\u2019s like a game,\u201d said Diamond Aaliyah, one of the youth speakers.<\/p>\n

Several people noted that sexual exploitation often looks different from how it\u2019s portrayed in movies or shows. Swai Lakai, another town hall participant, said trafficking may take place in \u201cmassage places, spas, smoke shops, gas stations, places where you\u2019d least expect it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not always someone scooping you off the street in a white windowless van \u2014 it\u2019s the unregulated nervous system, it\u2019s the substance use, it\u2019s the disappearing for long periods of time,\u201d said Sarah Koster, a faculty instructor at Samuel Merritt University who attended the town hall.<\/p>\n

Boys may also be groomed by family or friends to normalize sexual exploitation, pointed out NuPhaeya Hassen, a reproductive justice program coordinator for Dream Youth Clinic. \u201cYoung men also suffer from human trafficking,\u201d she said. \u201cThey may be trained on how to be the aggressor and how to lead a young woman into trafficking, or they may be trafficked themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Youth want to see more resources for organizations supporting sex trafficking survivors
\n\"\"Dream Youth Clinic reproductive justice program coordinators NuPhaeya Hassen, left, and LaKia Williams speak at a youth-led town hall on sex trafficking in Oakland on Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. Credit: Roselyn Romero\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n

Addressing the city and county leaders in the room, young people said they want to see more funding for local nonprofits providing shelter, jobs, and mental health services to sexually exploited youth, as well as more school-based and after-school programs to prevent trafficking.<\/p>\n

Miahjae Turrentine, a youth leader with the Dream Youth Clinic, said she wishes Oakland schools could implement programs or curricula teaching kids how to self-regulate. \u201cSome of them are repeating words and behaviors that their parents have taught them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

LJ, the high school senior, said she had to \u201cfight\u201d for support while navigating the foster care system, which she said was riddled with long waitlists due to being under-resourced.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeetings are so delayed in the system,\u201d said LJ, \u201cand some kids don\u2019t know how to advocate for themselves, especially coming into the system at a young age.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swai Lakai said she wants high school sex education classes to include more information on the signs of human trafficking and how to report it. \u201cI feel like this should be required in schools,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

“*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teens and young adults shared their experiences with sex trafficking in Oakland \u2014 and their ideas for solutions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[76851,143,145,144,1492,26468,67216],"class_list":{"0":"post-157109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-dream-youth-clinic","9":"tag-oakland","10":"tag-oakland-headlines","11":"tag-oakland-news","12":"tag-public-safety","13":"tag-sex-trafficking","14":"tag-sexual-exploitation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}