Hey, my name is Heather Franklin and I want to share my story. 2 years ago I was living in southern Alabama and became homeless. The police picked me up but it was off the books and they were trying to get me out the back door. I believe it was to hand me over to human traffickers. I snatched my momma’s class ring and ran.

I didn’t know where was safe in Alabama so I fled to Atlanta, GA. Big mistake. I was kidnapped, brutally assaulted by a gang leader who told me I was their property now and if I ever left they would find me and kill me. I told him go to hell and when I found my chance, I jumped out a second story window and ran down the median of downtown Atlanta at night, barefoot, all night.

A homeless man saved my life that night when he saw me crying and bloody.

In time I went to California thinking that was the place that would help me get back on my feet. I was so wrong. All up the coast I went to organizations for women who had been human trafficked and or homeless. There isn’t enough oversight and supervision of the people who work directly with the women, the victims. So many of these places were human trafficking the women they were supposed to be helping. Giving them housing but making them prostitute out of the housing or letting gang members have access to them to recruit them.

Each time I was in a new place, trying to get housing or shelter and work a normal job I started getting stalked. Sometimes I would have to walk 9 miles a day to get to work and take buses and trolleys and people would follow me every step of the way. Cars and vans with people wearing gang colors and symbols would pull over and try to snatch me up. People would sabotage my bicycles, making me lose my only means of transportation besides walking and public transport. My feet would bleed from all the walking I did. I didn’t feel safe, I was always on edge, looking out for who was going to try to harm me next.

I have been shot at, robbed, and brutally beaten. I have lost everything over and over again. I would pray to God when I felt like all was lost and the thought that I would get through this to see my children again helped me survive. I sought refuge in churches of all denominations all languages. Singing praise brought me comfort and in these holy houses I felt safe for a brief time in my day.

I read my bible and wrote poetry and songs. My bibles and journals got stolen several times and I would have to start over. Everything that wasn’t on my body got stolen in time. I began to minister to other homeless people and to carry a backpack full of extra food from the food pantry and would feed the needy.

As long as I could find a safe space, I would call my sons every day. I missed them terribly but was afraid to go back to Alabama, where my journey all started. Afraid of the man who tormented me in Atlanta, afraid they would find me and kill me or my family.

I wanted so badly to have the system in CA work, to get housing, to get a job, and establish myself and just have a normal life. The longest job I had was selling government phones, which were free to homeless people in CA if they had a CA ID. I worked so hard but the manager was taking advantage of me. He kept withholding my paychecks until he owed me more than $4,000. He began to bully me, to verbally abuse me so I quit. I wanted to work but it was so hard to even get an interview.

I was staying at a homeless shelter that had a security guard. A group of 5 bougie CA folks paid the guard off to come into the shelter and try to kidnap me. They were literally live-streaming it, I could hear everything. They were too afraid of getting stabbed and left. I went to a Spanish speaking church nearby to pray and sing and feel safe. I told my little sister what happened and that I didn’t know what to do, I was so afraid that they would come back and actually take me that night.

By the grace of God she asked me if she could buy me a plane ticket would I leave CA today and I cried and told her yes. I was terrified but I went back to the shelter to get my things and told them I was just going out for a little while. I took a 9 hour train ride to the airport and barely made it to my flight but I made it took 12+ hours to get back to Alabama.

My little sister put me up in an extended stay hotel for over a month, as she was in the process of closing on her first house. She fed me and clothed me and I am so blessed to have her here for me at this difficult time in my life. We moved in to her house in mid February. It’s been a process to adjust to, I have been in fight or flight mode for so long, only now where I am safe can I finally begin to process the trauma and horrors that I have experienced. It’s going to take time, I have severe PTSD, I am at times still afraid and anxious when I leave the house. I see cars with no plates with people in them with gang colors when I leave the house. Whether I am walking or riding my bike, these cars will pull up and pull over and just stare at me just like they did in CA. Sometimes I can’t sleep for 3-4 days. I want to have a job and work but I am in need of some consistency, which I believe will be achieved with getting care established with a mental health provider. I don’t qualify for Medicaid in Alabama and with the ACA subsidies expired health insurance starts at $430 a month. There are few medical facilities that offer income based payment for services here and the wait to be seen is long.

Please help me get back on my feet, to get health insurance, and medical care. Help me pay my little sister back and help with my food and housing expenses while I am unable to sleep and work. It’s a stretch but if this go fund me exceeds my goal, it will help me to buy a vehicle so that I can drive to work, to church, to see my family.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to my story.