By Miriam Karmali, Freedom United

The Safer Streets for All Act, due to go into effect on January 1, 2023, repeals section 653.22 of California’s penal code, an archaic and harmful law that criminalizes loitering for the intent to engage in prostitution. 

In practice, this law targets victims of trafficking and sex workers, and is applied disproportionately against cis and trans women of color, often working in the sex industry. It also prevents survivors of trafficking from moving on with their lives if they are dealing with the significant challenges posed by acquiring a criminal record. 

But the Safer Streets for All Act will now give trafficking survivors the power to clear their names. This is a significant win and makes California a leader in supporting trafficking victims and survivors. 

We handed in over 9,000 Freedom United community signatures with our partner CAST to Governor Newsom, and our California community also called the Governor’s office. We urged him to listen to the thousands of anti-trafficking advocates supporting passage of the Safer Streets for All Act – and he did! 

This demonstrates how powerful we are when we raise our voices together to call for change.   

Read all about our campaign in our field report. 

The Safer Streets for All Act is key to trafficking prevention effortsand will enable trafficking survivors criminalized under the loitering law to clear their name and recover. 

A huge thank you to the Freedom United community for helping get this over the line!

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