SAN ANTONIO — A major push from the state is looking to stem the flow of human trafficking and help thousands of victims.
Gov. Greg Abbott's office announced more than $18 million in awards to state, local, public and private organizations to prevent human trafficking in our state.
Roy Maas Youth Alternatives is one of the four recipients in the San Antonio and Bexar County area.
CEO Bill Wilkinson said the funding will allow their emergency shelter, the La Puerta House, to house 16 victims of child sex trafficking.
"By having shelter dollars we can now hold on to these children for up to 90 days," Wilkinson said, "which gives us a much better chance at working on them on placement options, therapeutic options and providing them with the resources they need to escaped this life."
He said the temporary drop-in shelter helped 100 victims last year from October to December. In the shelter's first year of opening, 60 percent of the children were girls, while 40 percent were young boys.
"We see this as a problem that is escalating," Wilkinson said. "This is a serious problem, we can't ignore it. It does happen in your own neighborhood and we need to work as a community to fix this."
The La Puerta emergency shelter will have a grand opening next week. Wilkinson said children will be placed two or three weeks following the opening.
Included among the grant recipients are the following four counties:
- Bexar County: $280,071.00
- Dallas County: $232,261.00
- Harris County: $1,713,377.05
- Tarrant County: $164,057.00
The recipients in Bexar County include:
- BCFS Health and Human Services
- Bexar County
- Roy Maas' Youth Alternatives, Inc.
- St. Jude's Ranch for Children Texas Region (Bulverde)