Though the shops along Sullivant Ave. WOSU agreed not to use her nameโthe woman feared retribution from her drug dealer. When I ask what brought her out here, her response is direct:. She even managed to get clean and stay sober at one point, but that only lasted a year. She says she relapsed and wound up here. Prostitution is not new to the city of Columbus, but according to data from Columbus Police, it's increasing: In each of the past two years, the number of prostitution-related arrests has increased by 30 percent.
No neighborhood sees more of this activity than the Hilltop, and both local advocates and law enforcement agree it's being fueled by the opioid epidemic. Despite the flurry of attention to fighting the crisis around Central Ohio, when it comes to prostitution, local policies haven't adjusted to stop the cycle. At 67, Sister Nadine is not your typical advocate for victims of human trafficking. While handing the women their lunches, she peppers them with questions about their safety and health.
She calls everyone "honey. In the last year, she's managed to help one womanโthat she knows ofโget off the streets. But these women live such transient livesโoften they're victims of violence, incarceration and fatal overdosesโthat she rarely sees the same one twice.
Sister Nadine says she's learned to spot these women by their walkโthe way they wander without any particular place to go. Or how they wait at bus stops, but never board any buses. Or how thin these women all seem to be. The women Sister Nadine serves lunches to, as well as several women I interviewed for this story, all say they regularly go days without food or sleep.
They live in houses that are either abandoned or run by drug dealers; they carry everything they own in their purses. Michelle Hannan, director of the anti-human trafficking effort at Salvation Army, says even 10 years ago, the majority of sex workers in Columbus struggled with heroin addiction. Today, law enforcement and advocates agree it impacts percent. Of those, two-thirds say they became addicted prior to working in prostitution.
