Passengers get into a big white van and are taken through areas of Houston with high numbers of suspected prostitution businesses. Besides the ship channel, our tour takes us to an area south of the Galleria and also Telephone Road in the Gulfgate area.
The van stops in front of some businesses and Chaney talks about what he has learned happens inside. The tour focuses on numerous businesses with the address , a biblical allusion to Isaiah The verse references divine intervention and salvation for the enslaved.
The door locks behind you, and they bring the girls into that room with you. The group conducts outreach missions to convince prostitutes to escape their pimps and start a new life. One part of that is driving to different brothels with small gifts for the girls and chatting with them. You know, they see it as a morale boost for the girls.
The Elijah Rising team also approaches prostitutes on the street or through backpage ads. They arrange sessions with prostitutes, meet up in a room, talk to them and offer a helpline number. Elijah Rising begins their tour in the parking lot of First Baptist Church off of the Katy Freeway and slowly makes its way across town.
The nonprofit added that the van with tinted windows sometimes intimidates would-be customers. Pan and zoom over this mini-map of the Houston-area to see alleged trafficking hotspots. Contour lines were created based on the density of unlicensed sexually-oriented businesses. To create the lines, the city was broken up into three-mile segments. Each contour line represents a report of a sexually-oriented business, with densely-packed lines signifying a greater concentration within the area.
