Cost of Starting Over: Rebuilding After Domestic Violence, Trafficking
Starting over after domestic abuse or human trafficking often means rebuilding nearly every part of life. Survivors frequently face financial barriers, housing instability and long-term emotional challenges as they work toward safety and independence.
While domestic violence and human trafficking are distinct experiences, advocates say both can leave survivors facing similar barriers when trying to rebuild their lives.
Jennie Pless, director of advocacy at Gateway Domestic Violence Center, said financial stability is often the biggest hurdle.
Why It’s Newsworthy: This story highlights how survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking face ongoing barriers such as housing instability and financial insecurity, which directly impact their ability to rebuild their lives in the community.Financial is huge. I think it’s probably the biggest barrier across the board for most folks.”
“Partly, if you think about just the economic situation in the United States right now, we hear a lot of everyone having trouble, like paying bills, finding housing, that’s rough for everyone,” Pless said.
Gateway Domestic Violence Center is a nonprofit organization in Gainesville, Georgia, that provides emergency shelter, legal advocacy and support services for survivors of domestic violence and trafficking, helping women and young girls rebuild after leaving unsafe situations. Founded in 1982, the organization also offers a 24/7 over-the-phone crisis hotline.
For some survivors, those challenges can make it difficult to remain in safe environments. Rachel Flowers, a survivor and family advocate at Gateway, said she struggled to rebuild after leaving a trafficking situation.
“I’ve been safe since 2020, so I got out of my trafficking situation in 2016, and I actually had nowhere to live, so I returned back to my abuser, who is the father of my children,” Flowers said.
“I ended up getting pregnant with my third daughter and staying with him until about 2020 when, like the abuse just continued to get worse, and I went to a domestic violence shelter similar to Gateway,” she said. ” And it’s been a challenge trying to get back on my feet and navigate being a single mom, not having a partner to share all the responsibilities with. That’s created some resentment in my life.”
Advocates say trauma can further complicate recovery.
“I think that No. 1, when you’ve gone through trauma, especially early on, that changes the way that your brain functions, that changes your ability to cope with new stressors. We have a lot of clients who are really living in that constant fight, flight or freeze, and it makes everything feel like a crisis,” said Lisa Thomas, program manager at Gateway Domestic Violence Center.
(Graphic/According to a Polaris analysis of data from a 2021 National Human Trafficking Hotline, about 61% of victims have gone through recent migration or relocation. While state level statistics were scarce, national studies suggest about 10% of victims have substance use concerns.
According to the national study, other vulnerabilities can increase risk of assault and trafficking cases.
Recovery, experts say, is not a linear process and can affect survivors long after they leave abusive situations. Sarah Howard, director of the Sexual Assault Center at The Cottage, said healing does not follow a straight path.
I think it’s important to recognize that healing is not linear.”
“This impacts people throughout their life,” Howard said. “In the hope for healing, I think really it just starts to take up less and less space in your life, but it doesn’t ever really go away.”
Saleha Alam is a third-year journalism and political science student with a Certificate in Public Affairs Communications at the University of Georgia on a pre-law track.
