The Oakland City Council approved a measure earlier this month to close three streets off International Blvd. in order to decrease commercial sex activity on the corridor.
Councilmember Charlene Wang (District 2) introduced the six-month pilot program that will close Ninth, 10th and 11th Avenues. The temporary water-filled barriers can be moved if necessary.
But some residents and business owners in the area worry barriers will not decrease sex trade on the streets but only displace it.
“They put those barriers on East 15th and they push the girls onto International in front of our businesses without talking to us,” Brenda Grisham, a salon owner at International and E. 17th said. “You have to talk to them in order to give them an opportunity. That’s not what the city does, but that’s what they should be doing.”
The purpose of the blockades is to separate activity between International Blvd. and the Franklin Elementary School, Wang said. The measure also forces clients, or “johns” to move into well-lit areas where enforcement can happen.
“The funding that is being used for this is transportation funding. I cannot use it for anything else,” Wang said. “So it’s not like this is a pot of funding that I could use on survivor services instead or for enforcement.”
Street closures are part of a broader plan to address trafficking
Street closures have generated significant media attention. Wang, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee and anti-human-trafficking task force, said they are just one component of Oakland’s response to trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. The city is also directing money towards services and street outreach.
“I completely agree that it’s not the one solution, this is ultimately not going to get the women and girls into the services that they need,” Wang said. “But this also was something that the community in this neighborhood has been pleading for me to do.”
Oakland created a Human Trafficking Survivor Support Fund earlier this year with revenue collected from buyers and exploiters. The fund will assist with medical and mental health emergencies, housing, shelter, education, street outreach and more.
This June, the city decided to use Measure NN to fund the Violence Reduction Plan for the next four years. The plan allocates 15% for survivors of commercial sexual exploitation and 4% to support OPD’s increased enforcement. Measure NN is a nine-year parking and parcel tax that raises $45 million annually for violence reduction services.
OPD plans to utilize crime reduction teams to increase enforcement activities to possibly stop traffickers from coming into Oakland. The measure allows the department to work with other organizations to connect operations with victim-support. OPD was allocated $700,000 for 2026-27 to support responses to human trafficking.
Services for survivors of gender-based violence received $5,400,000 for 2026-27 which can help trafficking victims.
The 2026-30 Violence Reduction Plan aims to reduce domestic violence, sexual assault and commercial sexual exploitation crimes by 10% by 2030.
Additionally, Wang pushed for the amended the city’s budget to allocate $700,000 for enforcement, including the reintroduction of an undercover vice team, which had been cut significantly in 2024.
As for the next steps, Wang said that her goal is to double enforcement operations and to develop street outreach, contacting individuals directly to determine their needs.
Oakland advocate groups are already working directly with victims
A few community organizations actively work with the city to assist sex workers and survivors to find ways to leave the sex trade.
Dream Youth Clinic launched a mobile unit this year to help individuals along International Blvd. They provide access to STD testing, drug tests, Narcan, hygiene items and more.
CEO and founder Dr. Aisha Mays said their consistent presence at the International Blvd. and 15th Ave. intersection on Tuesdays and Fridays help girls familiarize themselves with their work and know where they are.
MISSSEY offers direct support through housing assistance, case management and education for sex trafficking victims.
Measuring and tracking sex trafficking remains a challenge
The FBI designated the Bay Area as one of the largest hubs of child sex trafficking. And Oakland is its epicenter. Still, it is hard to determine an effective method to help victims and track commercial sex, especially since many of them aren’t from the Town or do not feel comfortable reporting.
Last year, the Congressional Research Service released a report stating that comprehensive data on trafficking — sex and labor trafficking — does not exist in the United States.
National data on sex trafficking enforcement is collected by the FBI, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations. However, law enforcement agencies across the country use different databases to track information resulting in a fragmented system.
Tracking victims and collecting data is complicated due to inconsistent definitions in different jurisdictions, privacy restrictions, and victims who do not self-identify as being trafficked, among others.
City officials said that they’ll determine the success of the street closure by gathering data on the outcome, but they still need to establish exactly how that collection will happen.
Where the criminal justice system lacks data collection, victim support services are used to further insights. Data on victims is collected from the Human Trafficking Hotline, from victim services that receive federal grants and ad hoc studies.
“It’s really important to remember that you never know who is being trafficked,” Dr. Mays said. “Any young person at any time could be experiencing trafficking and can be trafficked even if they never disclose it.”
“The girls that we see on International are also the same girls who go to school at Oakland Public Schools, they are the same girls who work in our local stores, the same girls that go to other community organizations,” Dr. Mays said.
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