McGready, M.R. (1996, 1999). Are you out there, God? New York: Covenant House.

OVERVIEW

This is another of a series of booklets by and about Covenant House, a famous program for runaways and homeless youth in New York and many other cities. Sister Mary Rose has become a nationally known advocate for street children. With all studies on street children, it shows how quickly kids arriving in a big city are swallowed up by sex, drugs, and crime.

Two stories from this book highlight the power of pimps.

Although she was lonely, scared and very hungry, Janice was very hesitant about getting into the Covenant House van. " ‘I really gotta go. I can’t talk now. Maybe later. Will you be back in a couple of hours?’ She was glancing up and down the street nervously. But finally she got in. ‘OK. But only for a minute or two then I gotta go. My boyfriend is gonna be really mad if he finds out I’m doin’ this.’ "

" ‘Sure, but why do you call him your boyfriend if he lets you walk the street at night?’ "—the counselor asked. " ‘Do you mean your pimp?’ "

" ‘Oh, no, he’s not a pimp, he’s my boyfriend,’ she insisted with dead honest sincerity. ‘He loves me. He really does. He buys me a lot of nice things.’ As she said this, she twisted a cheap-looking ring on her finger."

As she ate her sandwich and settled down, she gained confidence. " ‘I…I’m scared, I’m really scared. Do you think you can help me? My boyfriend beats me up sometimes if I don’t do what he tells me. I think…I think I’m pregnant. Oh, God, what am I gonna do?’ "

As happens so regularly this "boy friend" had found her at the bus station. She had run away from home in Iowa after a bad argument with her parents. Suddenly, this new boyfriend was promising to take care of her. After a few weeks he demanded that she "go to work" to pay him back for the favors. Street prostitutes can bring their pimps a thousand dollars or more a week.

Thinking her to be about 17, the counselor asked Janice how old she was.

" ‘Fourteen,’ she replied and broke into tears. ‘I’ve wanted to quit doing this for a long time. But I didn’t know how, or where to go. Then I saw your van tonight. I’d heard about it from some of the other girls. I thought maybe you could help. I was afraid to talk to you. I’m really scared my boyfriend’s going to find out I’m here and…’ Through tears Janice agreed to go back to Covenant House."

It turned out Janice was four months pregnant. So afraid was she that her boyfriend would find her, she refused to set foot outside the building—even for fresh air with a counselor. Calls with her parents back in Iowa seemed to hold promise of a better relationship. Soon she was on a plane to rejoin her parents and regain her confidence. She was one less one million kids homeless on U.S. streets.

Other stories in this book do not turn out so well. One girl tried to avoid her pimp and get into the program’s van. But her escape was cut off, and she was dragged back by her hair into the pimp’s car. We can only imagine what happened to her.

Cindy’s story was another matter. She was a 17-year-old when she met Slim at a party in Chicago. He was dressed so nice, acted so well, complimented her on her dancing, and then promised her a great job in New York. He had fancy business cards to prove it. She and her mom did check out the New York office and it all seemed to back up Slim’s story. Slim even talked to her mom on the phone and promised to take care of everything. So Cindy took the train to meet Slim in New York.

"As soon as I got to the city, and met him at a hotel, Slim seemed different. ‘We’re not going to be doing any music videos today,’ he told me. He was kind of laughing this really sickening laugh. I told him I wanted to get out. I was crying."

" ‘He made me have sex with him. And then he threw me into a room with three other girls and locked the door.’ "

" ‘I’m a little short on cash today, girls,’ he told us. ‘I need you to go out and earn your keep before I can make you a star,’ he said. So he forced all of us to get dressed in these cheap clothes, to work the streets.’ "

Surprised, the Covenant House counselor asked, " ‘He wanted you to be a prostitute the first night?’ "

" ‘Yes,’ " she said. " ‘He told me he owned me now. He said to ‘get out there and earn some money before I hurt you.’ "

Pretending to do everything he said, Cindy got dressed up and walked out with the other girls. She saw Slim watching them like a hawk. But noticing him being distracted she ran, got to a pay phone around the corner, and called the police. Before they could get to her, Slim found her, threw her down on the pavement and started beating her. Then he heard the siren and fled.

After the doctors finished patching Cindy up, she pressed charges. She kept saying, " ‘I want to get that guy. I want to get that guy.’ " For safety, the police brought Cindy to Covenant House. Pimps and other in the sex industry think nothing of brutally beating and even killing girls who try to get away. Cindy was going much further in trying to pin charges on the pimp.

Cindy was taken by police escort to court. In the trial room, Slim was smiling as he sat between two lawyers dressed in $1000 pinstriped suits. They argued on behalf of their client who was an outstanding member of his community and the music industry and made frequent contributions to charity:

This girl is simply angry she didn’t get a role in one of our client’s videos, your honor. We are outraged she would impugn our client’s integrity with this story. Our client, not the girl, is the real victim. It is she, in fact, who should be on trial.

Cindy told her story with calmness and resoluteness. She never wavered under vicious cross-examination. She told her story looking directly at Slim.

He forced me to have sex with him. He locked me up, and then tried to make me prostitute for him. He beat me up when I tried to run away.

The police collaborated Cindy’s story, and Slim was found guilty of assault, sex with a minor and trafficking in prostitution. Victims of sexual assault and exploitation are not always vindicated; sometimes they are repeatedly victimized by an indifferent or careless system. But with help from the police and a caring program, Cindy went home to rebuild her life.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. Does this article agree with what you know of street kids and prostitution?
2. What is most helpful for girls and boys who find themselves in street prostitution?
3. How would you respond to someone who finds life at home intolerable and is ready to run away to a major city?
4. Imagine a conversation with a young street prostitute. Would it be mostly about prostitution or the whole shape of their lives? What alternatives do you think of for them and what would be some of their responses to such suggestions?

IMPLICATIONS

1. More must be done for the one million youth on U.S. streets and the millions and millions homeless children around the world.
2. Selling their bodies seems to be the only resource these kids have, and there are many to coerce them into doing so.
3. The brutality of pimps and some sexual predators, AIDS other diseases that flourish with poor living conditions, make the life-span of street kids very short.
4. We should be aware of the resources for such young people in almost every city. But it takes someone who can earn their trust to link needy kids with crucial resources.

Dean Borgman cCYS