Apartment complex opens for sex trafficking victims in Garrard County

Garrard County, Ky (WTVQ): January marks Sex Trafficking Awareness Month. In Garrard County, a new apartment complex is now open for victims of sex trafficking. The complex can house up to 30 women, to help give them a fresh start.

Refuge for Women ‘ started back in 2009. Their goal, “is to have a life that we want to live, that we want to show up for and that takes time to explore,” said Deanna Lynn, Executive Director. “We wanted to kind of have a solution to the affordable housing where they can still have affordable housing,” she said. “But maybe not have that much stuff that triggers them right away as they are integrating back into who they want to become out there.”

Each apartment will be fully furnished, complete with a full kitchen, bedroom, and laundry area.

Lynn says she was in the sex industry for more than 10 years. “A lot of people they want us to get out. But they don’t know what to do once were free, and we don’t know what to do once were free. So, being able to have a safe place to explore some of these options is really key and pivotal in this movement right now.”

There’s an onsite career center to connect the women to resources, to help find the job that they want.  “I mean we have a really high success rate of not returning to the sex industry. Not returning to the pimps, producers, traffickers, predators,” Lynn said. “We have lives that are unrecognizable. If people even hear my story they think that I’m lying because it’s just so different than the life that I live today.”

Here is where you can learn more about ‘Refuge for Women’