Restoration House: Shelter and Healing

Affordable housing and homelessness

Central LA East LA South LA Long Beach County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit) City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit) LAUSD (select only if you have a district-wide partnership) Gateway Cities

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Homelessness is both a cause and a consequence of human trafficking. At RDS, we witness daily how the lack of stable housing forces victims into ongoing cycles of exploitation. Many trafficking survivors are not sleeping on the streets but are instead living in local motels, where they are required to sell their bodies each day just to afford the nightly rate, which often exceeds $125 per night. The desperate need for shelter drives continued exploitation, making housing not just a basic human right, but a lifesaving intervention. One young woman recently came to our drop-in center and pleaded for help covering a one-night motel stay—not to escape permanently, but just to pause the trauma for a single night. She didn’t want to be purchased by another man. She simply needed one evening of safety, free from being exploited, to catch her breath. Survivors are not choosing this life; they are surviving it.

This grant will support a trauma-informed transitional housing initiative developed by (RDS) to directly address the critical link between human trafficking and homelessness. RDS works with survivors who are often living in unsafe motels, trading sex daily just to afford a place to sleep. Many are trapped in a cycle of exploitation with no safe alternative for shelter or support.
Restoration House will provide immediate, stable housing in a safe and nurturing environment, designed specifically for trafficking survivors. What sets this program apart is the deep trust survivors already have in the RDS team—a trust built through consistent outreach, compassionate care, and a survivor-centered approach. Because of this trusted relationship, clients are far more likely to enter and remain in housing provided by RDS than in traditional shelters, where many report feeling unsafe or retraumatized.
The home will offer comprehensive wraparound services, including individualized case management, trauma counseling, job readiness and workforce development, financial literacy training, and access to legal and medical resources. RDS will also assist residents in accessing up to $20,000 in Victim Compensation, helping them begin a new chapter with financial stability and dignity.
By offering safe housing through a trusted source, Restoration House will break the harmful cycle of survival sex and homelessness, supporting survivors as they heal, stabilize, and reclaim their lives.

If Restoration house successful in implementation, LA County will become a safer, more compassionate, and more responsive region for survivors of human trafficking. Survivors who once faced the impossible choice between homelessness and daily exploitation will instead have access to stable, trauma-informed housing where they are treated with dignity and supported by people they trust. This success will reduce the visible and invisible impacts of trafficking in communities across the county—fewer women living in motels under coercion, fewer ER visits and criminal justice interactions related to survival sex, and fewer cycles of trauma passed down through generations. Instead, we will see more survivors pursuing education, reconnecting with family, entering the workforce, and contributing to the social and economic fabric of the county. Ultimately, LA County will be known for leading with innovative, survivor-centered solutions that prioritize safety, healing, and true restoration.