Federal Way human trafficking survivor now helps others escape

“Right now, as we sit here for this interview, there’s definitely a baby sold on Aurora,” Sarah Ann Hamilton told the Mirror about the Seattle stretch of road.

Hamilton is the director of survivor services at The More We Love, an organization that works with those experiencing homelessness, with a focus on women and survivors of trafficking. She lives in Federal Way and the organization is based in Burien, but they are part along the Pacific Highway as it stretches from North Seattle to Tacoma.

“I’m doing information about Aurora. If I hit ten girls, seven of them are minors, and most of them are our black and brown girls,” Hamilton said. Some of that outreach takes place in camps, which she said often include trafficked people.

As a survivor herself, Hamilton knows what it’s like to be on the street as a child, working up and down the Pacific Highway.

For her dedication to creating safe spaces for survivors and the obstacles she has overcome to do so, Sarah Ann Hamilton is the Mirror’s Hometown Hero for August.

“My story is a lot like everyone else’s story. I was in an abusive household. It’s funny how when you’re in a situation like that, you think it’s going to be better on the streets than being there,” Hamilton said. She was just 12 when she had her first client, after a friend showed her that prostitution could be a way to get money for food.

“You’d be surprised what you do when you’re hungry,” Hamilton said.

The same friend not only had money for food, but also an apartment. Hamilton was invited to go see the apartment, then “I, of course, met her pimp and … it got ugly after that.”

Hamilton was in and out of prostitution and drug use from that day until he was in his thirties. Poverty and the stigma of 14 arrests for prostitution before the age of 18 kept her stuck. Today, children cannot be charged with prostitution, but the law had not yet changed then.

At one point, Hamilton tried to get out by investing in a career change.

“I went to school to be a nurse. I graduated, I did my internship, I went to look for a job, and when they ran my file, they say you can’t work here. It’s a matter of morality,” Hamilton said.

To actually leave the life, Hamilton said it took finding a community and that “relationships got me in and relationships got me out.”

At The More We Love, Hamilton works to create that community for other survivors and connect them with resources and support to help them follow in their footsteps. She and friend and fellow survivor Kristine Moreland founded the organization together.

In the organization’s first year of existence, they helped at least 146 women. That doesn’t mean everyone has left life behind. This may take time.

For Hamilton, this process took about five years.

In her 30s, Hamilton was living in a shelter when a friend invited her to an art workshop at the Survivors of Prostitution (OPS).

“We showed up at this little house in (Downtown) Seattle, and they have this patio that looks like fairies live there, with all these plants. It was so beautiful. It was so beautiful,” Hamilton said.

Walking in the door, he smelled cooking food and liked what he saw: “There are these women everywhere. There were high heels that were hanging along the wall that the women had turned into art, there was poetry on the walls… I had never been anywhere like that before.”

After much encouragement that day, Hamilton tried painting for the first time. “I don’t know what it means to put paint on a blank canvas, but something happened and suddenly I felt like I could breathe. It didn’t happen overnight, but I started painting every chance I got,” Hamilton said.

Life began to change for Hamilton the more time he spent with other survivors in these spaces. She began to take on the guidance of others and listen to their stories. He first sold his art at an art show in memory of the victims of the Green River Killer organized by OPS founder Noelle Gomez. It was at that art show that she realized she was a good enough artist to earn something from her work. He got an apartment, got his first job at Youth Care, started speaking at events and stopped using drugs.

Hamilton described the typical intervention as “clinical”, saying “there’s no heart in it at all”.

This is where The More We Love comes in.

“I’m very excited to be in this leadership position because I want to do things differently and I want to show other survivors that if I can do it, you can do it,” Hamilton said. Having a survivor-led, survivor-led organization can help “show survivors that you can use your transferable skills. You can and should thrive, and you don’t have to be stuck any longer.”

The organization works with a ten-to-one model, where each survivor has a team of ten people there to support them. Hamilton handles outreach and direct communication and then helps mentor and connect women with resources to improve their lives.

“I think we do things a little differently. We are very trauma-informed and trauma-driven, and we understand the intersectionality of everything that’s going on. We understand that our black and brown girls are the most marginalized group of people in human trafficking and that they don’t get enough resources, assistance, all of that, but we understand that every survivor matters,” Hamilton said. “We’re really looking outside the box to create new ways to truly heal and help women not just survive, but thrive.”

The organization also does events and giveaways, such as a recent backpacking trip. Simple things like a school bag, car trouble or a vacation could be what push people back into the prostitution life, which was true for her, Hamilton said.

“Poverty is our biggest trafficker,” Hamilton said. “My kids deserved presents… there wouldn’t be enough… but I knew how to get them.”

(Read more of Hamilton’s story online at federalwaymirror.com.)