By Yvette Harding –
Fort Worth residents who opposed a church’s plan to build a 100-bed house for victims of sex enslavement are more alarmed about street traffic than sex traffic, the pastors say.
Despite opposition from a local neighborhood association, Mercy Culture Church was narrowly approved by the City Council in December to begin work on what is touted as the nation’s largest facility to help victims of sex trafficking.
“Their second biggest reason for fighting us is they believe that it’s going to cause too much traffic around their neighborhood,” said co-pastor Heather Schott on Bless God Studios. “We care more about the trafficked than traffic. What type of person do you have to be to say I care more about traffic around my neighborhood than those that are being brutally abused?”
Following the city council’s approval, the 3-story, 43,000 square foot shelter can now break ground on the church’s property between the I-35 and the Oakhurst neighborhood. It is being built by the non-profit Justice Reform set up by Schott.
“We’ve been fighting this horrific Injustice called human trafficking and within human trafficking is literally the modern-day slavery of human beings being sold,” heather says. “A lot of people think it’s not something that’s really happening in America.
“It’s not just conspiracy theory. America is the number nation in the world for purchasing sex slaves,” she adds. “Trafficking in America is at an all-time high.”
Sex trafficking is a thorny problem. One component often missing in the solution is transition homes for trafficking survivors, Heather explains.
“Women are not going to try to be rescued if there’s no safe place for them to go,” she says. “This is going to be the largest such facility in America. There’s only 33 restoration homes in America, less than 600 beds, yet we have millions of slaves.”
Oakhurst residents worried about safety in their neighborhood, wondering if former prostitutes and pimps will be prowling around the area.
Mercy Culture says there’s a wooded area between their shelter and the Oakhurst neighborhood. Additionally, plans call for an 8-foot masonry wall to separate the two.
Mercy Culture Fort Worth has existed for five years and is thriving with six Texas campuses. Heather is a driving force behind the attempt to help victims of sex trafficking; 100 advocates have been trained so that every victim will have a mentor/counselor to help navigate integration into the legitimate economy, the church’s website says.
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About this writer: Yvette Harding studies at the Lighthouse Christian Academy near Century City, CA.
