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.