Homeless women end up working the sex trade in two ways. One, is of course the more well-known route of street walking, either alone or working for a pimp or madam. It’s safer with a pimp or madam.
The second route is less known, less talked about, but not uncommon.
Many women end up as one man’s personal sexual servant in order to get a place to sleep, a place to shower, food. From the outside it looks like a relationship. But it’s not. A common phrase among men in these situations is, “She fell into my lap.” It’s like a sugar daddy, but without the sugar. The sugar is survival.
God, I don’t want to ‘fall into someone’s lap’. But I guess I’d do it, rather than end up literally on the street. Where I might be raped, robbed, beaten. Tortured, like the girl with the cigarette burns on her arms. Where I might get all sorts of diseases. Where I might risk death. Where I might wish for death.
Sorry if this isn’t a fun journal to read – but it’s not meant to be fun. It’s meant to show the reality homeless women face every day. At least this is what we face here in Southern Oregon.
Homeless Oregon Writer 