16 | JANUARY 21 • 2021

W

hile Claire was liv-
ing in a university
town, a group of
men had been watching her for
a while without her knowledge.
One day, they sent someone
to her door. He was crying and
wearing a sling. She didn’t know
what to do but she wanted to
help, so she invited the man in
for a glass of water.
“
And that’s sort of how things
changed,
” Claire told the Detroit
Jewish News. (Only her first
name will be used in this article
to protect her privacy.)
The man was a human traf-
ficker. Human trafficking is
the practice of coercing a per-
son into labor or to engage in
commercial sexual actions. It is
sometimes referred to as mod-
ern-day slavery.
Claire would go on to be
starved, brainwashed and
abused.
“
A few days later — I don’t
even know how long, because
they call it “trauma brain,
” like,

you lose sense of time — I was
able to escape,
” Claire said.
She got him to take her to a
public place where she knew
people. From there, she went to
a hospital. That’s how she found
out about Sanctum House, a
group home in Oakland County
providing 24/7 support for
women who’ve been trafficked.
“
After this happened, if I
hadn’t come to Sanctum House,
yes, doctors would have pre-
scribed me Ativan and Xanax
and whatever else for the rest of
my life. But, trauma takes more
than that,
” she said.
During Claire’s first two
months at Sanctum House, she
was in shock. The trauma she
felt was so intense that if it had
been on the outside of her body,
she’
d have been in a “full body
cast for like a year,
” she said.
The traffickers had broken her
down completely, to the point
where she had no trust left and
no tools to relate to the outside
world, she told the JN.

Today, Claire is still living at
Sanctum House as she pursues
a master’s degree. The residen-
tial program has given her the
tools to move forward with
her life after trauma. Sanctum
House, she said, is a “national
game-changer.
”
“When you come to Sanctum
House, here is the space where
you can start to unpack that,
”
Claire said. “
And it’s more than
just sort of giving a man of fish.
If you give a man a fish, he eats
only for a day — but Sanctum
House teaches you how to go
back to living.
”

A UNIQUE APPROACH
When Huntington Woods res-
ident Edee Franklin was doing
a self-improvement program in
2013, she began to think about
creating a group home for sur-
vivors of human trafficking.
A recovering heroin addict
herself, Franklin realized how
important longer-term, trau-
ma- and addiction-informed

care could be to trafficking
survivors.
She didn’t waste any time.
Franklin, a real estate agent,
assembled a planning com-
mittee and did five years of
research and development.
They put together a compre-
hensive plan to help survivors
heal and, in 2015, gained a

501(c)3 designation for the new
nonprofit.
Sanctum House finally
opened its doors to human traf-
ficking survivors in February
2018. The organization keeps its
exact location private to protect
its residents.
“Now we’ll be open almost
three years, and we’re ready
for expansion,
” Franklin said.
“We’ve really grown. We’ve real-
ly created, I think, a wonderful
program.
”
Sanctum House was the
first of its kind in Southeast
Michigan and one of only a
few similar programs in the
United States. The program
serves women ages 18 and up,
who generally stay in the house
for about two years — though
some women feel ready to leave
before the two-year mark, and
some stay a bit longer, Franklin
said. Referrals are accepted
from all across the country.
The program includes com-
prehensive healthcare including

IN
THE
JEWS D
ON THE COVER

Trafficking

Battling

Trafficking

Battling
Human

Sanctum House seeks funding to sustain
and expand its haven for victims.

MAYA GOLDMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

PHOTOS BY JERRY ZOLYNSKY

Sanctum House founder Edee

Franklin of Huntington Woods and

member Claire discuss issues.

A woman does dishes

in the kitchen.