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. 

