Louisville residents have no sympathy for human trafficking survivors

Last year, I had the incredible opportunity to hear the story of Angela Renfro, a woman who survived human trafficking and used her traumatic experiences to help other women in similar positions. This interview can be found in one of my previous posts, Creating a Safe Space for Victims and Survivors of Human Trafficking. Renfro created the Kristy Love Foundation, a safe space where human trafficking survivors can stay while recovering from their trauma.

While her mission is powerful and moving, Renfro is facing backlash from those who neighbor her recovery house. Neighbors claim the women who reside in the home, former victims of forced prostitution and human trafficking, participate in illegal and illicit activities such as prostitution and drug dealing. Renfro calls such allegations "appalling" and even offered neighbors a tour of the recovery home to provide them with a better idea of her mission. Despite her efforts, neighbors have created a petition to prevent the Foundation from continuing its mission.

When Renfro shared her story of human trafficking with me in 2018, she told me through tears, "society doesn’t think of us as normal people. They don’t understand why we couldn’t get out sooner. They think it was our choice.” It is absolutely devastating that Renfro's assumption of how the world views survivors of human trafficking has been proven true. The neighbors of the Kristy Love Foundation have no sympathy for what the women living there have experienced. Their false allegations of prostitution and drug-related activities are a desperate attempt on their part to rid their neighborhood of women they view as abnormal.

After interviewing Renfro in 2018, I was eager to write about the experience, hoping to capture every detail in my essay. I drove home from the interview and immediately began typing away, writing six pages in less than an hour. Despite all the information I absorbed in my relatively short interview with Renfro, the first detail I typed out was "The love and peace are palpable in the Kristy Love Foundation’s home on Date Street." The Kristy Love Foundation is a place of compassion, solidarity, mercy, and kindness, concepts that its neighbors clearly cannot grasp.

Renfro spoke about the women she cared for at the home with such love and admiration, the way a mother speaks about her children. She would never allow the women recovering in her home to show disrespect to her, the law, or to themselves. The Kristy Love Foundation is a place for rehabilitation, and West Louisville residents must abandon their prejudices and judgments about survivors of human trafficking and instead treat them with the respect and love they deserve.

If you believe you are a victim of human trafficking or may have information about a potential trafficking situation, please contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-8888 or text 233733. If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call 911.