December 18, 2026
By Julianne Will
Providing safe housing for survivors of human trafficking is a funding-intensive endeavor, requiring round-the-clock staffing by highly trained personnel. Yet it’s a critically important step in empowering survivors to achieve lives of independence.
LifeWay Network is crafting a model of safe housing that better ensures sustained independence for trafficking survivors, allowing them to live safe, connected and free. At the same time, we’re developing an education strategy that seeks to prevent vulnerable individuals from becoming tomorrow’s trafficking survivors.
This year, however, the environment in the United States has posed new challenges to LifeWay Network’s ability to fulfill this crucial need. Success in these strong headwinds will require great collaboration from our community of partners, donors and volunteers.
Current Factors Impacting Support for Survivors
Federal Funding Cuts
The current administration has issued a series of orders freezing or cutting funding and grants to many nonprofit organizations.1 While LifeWay Network is not currently a recipient of federal funding, these changes have dramatically increased pressure on other funding sources, such as foundations, and have resulted in a larger pool of applicants competing for local and state dollars.
Nonprofits that relied on federal funding to support survivors have been forced to scale back programming, including safe housing, meaning the demand for services like those provided by LifeWay Network has accelerated at the very same time that funding has been squeezed.
At present, Restore is the only other program in the metro area offering transitional housing dedicated to trafficking survivors. Since LifeWay Network published a New York State safe housing directory in July, we’ve seen a 400 percent increase in referrals from individual survivors.
Immigration Policies
New immigration policies make it easier for survivors to be detained and deported — even those with pending applications for T-Visas, which were created by Congress to ensure that immigrant victims of crimes such as trafficking feel safe reporting abuse.
These policies have amplified fear and suppressed victims’ willingness to report human trafficking, allowing traffickers to force, defraud or coerce individuals into being trafficked for labor or sex with greater impunity.2
Many immigrant survivors are trafficked to the United States due to vulnerabilities such as intense violence or poverty in their home countries.3 Deportation often returns victims to situations where they’re likely to be re-trafficked.4
LifeWay Network Seeks to Foster Sustained Change for Survivors
As demand has expanded, so has LifeWay Network’s safe housing model, with the goal of seeing survivors from trafficking exit through independence.
Our foundational Comprehensive Transitional Safe Housing continues to offer a trauma-informed environment with wraparound support for as long as one year.
From there, women can now move into our newly created Semi-Independent Transitional Safe Housing, which offers a minimally structured setting for up to two additional years as survivors prepare for life beyond our program.
When no housing is immediately available, our new emergency hotel stays offer women newly breaking free from trafficking immediate safety and care. We’re also working toward a permanently affordable housing option for survivors who’ve completed our program and are continuing to build financial stability.
This new continuum of care is essential as the number of options for survivors continues to dwindle. It provides resources to help prevent re-trafficking and support lasting change.
How You Can Help Trafficking Survivors Now
Trafficking isn’t declining; by contrast, it’s one of the fastest-growing crimes in the world.5 Now more than ever, an active and involved community is necessary to give survivors a fresh chance at a life of freedom and prevent trafficking before it starts.
Here’s how you can take action:
- Learn about the red flags of human trafficking and how it occurs. Read about human trafficking at lifewaynetwork.org or request a presentation for your school, workplace or organization.
- Volunteer with LifeWay Network. Opportunities range from office help to event planning to workshops and training for survivors.
- Advocate for change by staying informed about policies impacting survivors and engaging with your elected representatives. Our Facebook and Instagram channels are helpful places to start.
- Donate to LifeWay Network to support safe housing for survivors. This is critical: If we can’t fund our safe housing programs, we have to turn away women survivors of trafficking who have few, if any, safe alternatives. Hearing the horrific experiences our residents endured before their trafficking exit makes this an untenable option.
Freedom is a basic human right. We encourage you to join LifeWay Network in assisting survivors of human trafficking to achieve healing and freedom amid these challenging times.
- https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/articles/proposed-changes-federal-grants
- https://19thnews.org/2025/10/u-t-visas-lawsuit-trump-immigration/
- https://polarisproject.org/understanding-human-trafficking/
- https://lifewaynetwork.org/2025/12/08/re-trafficking/
- https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2024/May/8-facts-you-need-to-know-about-human-trafficking-in-the-21st-century.html