So-called “safe harbor” laws designed to protect targets of sex trafficking in Florida are failing victims, according to a new report by the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center. Instead of getting help, victims are too often shuttled into the criminal justice system or otherwise detained without needed services. The study’s authors unveiled their findings Thursday on First Coast Connect and discussed what needs to happen to fix the problem. You can find the report at seethegirl.org.
Guests:
- Inderjit Vicky Basra, president & CEO of the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center.
- Stacy Ellison, vice president of development and communications for the Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center.
Then, some of the hardest working people in America are homeless. We talk to the author of There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America about housing precarity ahead of his local book reading. The acclaimed author spent years following five families who sadly typify the experience of thousands of homeless people: those who the author says are enduring “an emergency born less of poverty than prosperity. Families are not ‘falling’ into homelessness. They’re being pushed.” Though the families he followed live in Atlanta, it’s a problem replicated in Jacksonville — and virtually every other American city. As the book notes, “Today there isn’t a single state, metropolitan area, or county in the United States where a full-time worker earning the local minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment.” Brian Goldstone will be in Jacksonville Beach for a book reading from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 9 at Palms Presbyterian Church. For more information, go to palmschurch.org/event/a-evening-with-brian-goldstone/.
Guest:
- Brian Goldstone, author of There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America.