In 2007, the Vice Unit reported apprehending an average of two to three girls each week in Phoenix, after which some were put into jail, foster care or group homes, or were sent home. However, due to increased media attention and the FBI’s “Innocence Lost” program, which teams up with local, state and federal officers to fight prostitution, Schemers says this number has dropped recently to an average of one girl per week.

Phoenix police officers report picking up young prostitutes from every part of the Valley. The intersection of 51st Avenue and McDowell Road is a hot spot for juvenile prostitutes, they say, and recently, the northern part of Cave Creek Road has experienced an increase in prostitution. Hope was picked up on West Bell Road.

Sergeant Bray says many of these girls are runaways from bad situations.

That doesn’t mean other girls are not vulnerable. Phoenix police Commander Glenn Gardner says, “Teens are at risk simply because of the fact that this is a challenging age for them. They are going through a lot of emotional issues that they don’t know how to deal with. They are seeking approval and a way to fit in, and that’s what these guys prey on.” Hope admits she just wanted to be loved.

Natalie’s House is the project of Arizonans for the Protection of Exploited Children and Adults (APECA). And it’s the vision of many people, including executive director Janet Olson, who was working with APECA when someone asked her, “What about the kids here?” With her sights turned to Phoenix, she and a group of advisers started the project in 2003.

“The need was there, so we moved ahead,” Olson recalls. “We asked people who had worked with these cases, ‘If you could start from scratch, what would you do for these kids?’

“This is the perfect home for these girls. This is the model.”

Olson says she is pleased with the progress of Natalie’s House, which is estimated to cost $450,000 in construction, although she anticipates that most of this cost will be covered by donated labor and materials.

In addition, Natalie’s House is being decorated and furnished 100 percent through community donations and by volunteers. Phoenix-based interior designer Jana Conrad placed a birdhouse in every room of the house.

“I want every single area of the house to feel like you are at home and for it to be a peaceful place,” Conrad says. “A house for birds is a safe haven that inspires new life within.”  

The facility will have a fully-stocked kitchen, a family room, a classroom, a dining room with a personal seat and placemat for each child, an extensive library, and a bedroom and bathroom for every two girls. Olson personally designed the beds, which were built by inmates of Arizona’s Restorative Justice Program that, according to its Website, holds “offenders directly accountable to the victims and the community they harmed.”

Life within the house will include cooking, cleaning, laundry, studying and hanging out as a “family.” Private instruction will help each girl catch up on years of lost studies and prepare them to reenter society with confidence and purpose.

Unique to Natalie’s House also will be its equine therapy program, designed to rebuild trust. “A horse won’t use you or play games with you,” Olson says. “They respond to how you treat them. Sometimes you can tell an animal things you can’t tell an adult.”

This is the only safe house in the country using this technique, and Olson is confident it will be a key element in the healing process. For now, APECA is providing the horses, but Olson says she still is looking for a permanent partner to bring the horses to Natalie’s House or to have them donated and stabled on the property.

Natalie’s House is named in honor of national recording artist Natalie Grant, a two-time Dove Female Vocalist of the Year and founder of the HOME Foundation, a nonprofit charitable foundation dedicated to ending human sex trafficking here and abroad.

In a recorded message delivered at the groundbreaking, Grant expressed gratitude for being the namesake of Natalie’s House: “I think it’s probably one of the greatest honors I’ve ever received to know that there is a place for these precious souls to be given a second chance at life.”

Hope says the home has given her the chance to start a new life. Her dreams are simple now; she says she just wants to regain her lost teen years. She imagines her new life as she sits on a couch at Natalie’s House, holding a stuffed animal close to her chest, smiling:

“I want to live a regular teenage life now, going to movies, going to malls and kickin’ with my homegirls.”

To learn more about Natalie’s House, visit protectchild.org.