Pasco home for sex-trafficking victims would be state’s first. Neighbors say not so fast

Plans to create a home for young survivors of sex trafficking are drawing resistance from its future neighbors.

Mirror Ministries wants to open the first home of its kind in Washington state to put sexually exploited teen girls in a beautiful, rural location where they can take classes and heal.

The faith-based organization has an agreement to buy about 7.5 acres along the Columbia River, north of Pasco.

The Columbia River Road property includes the Sagemoor Pet Resort — long known as Sagemoor Kennels until its sale last spring — along with a house and barn.

When finished it would have three homes with bedrooms for 18 girls, ages 12 through 17.

The girls, who’d go through a screening process, would live there for up to 1 1/2 years and receive private schooling, counseling and training in job and life skills, all on site.

“These kids are not coming to the home because they are bad, they are coming to the home because they have been hurt,” Tricia MacFarlan, Mirror Ministries’ executive director, told the Tri-City Herald. “Research has shown that this is the most successful therapeutic model for their healing and restoration.”

The only existing home in the Northwest for sexually exploited minor girls is in Oregon.

Mirror Ministries has been researching and preparing for this home for nearly a decade, and MacFarlan says it is “exactly what we had dreamed about.”

She said contrary to the misinformation that is out there, the location will not impact the community in any negative way.

The real estate sale is contingent on Franklin County approving a conditional use permit since the property is not zoned multi-family.

A public hearing is at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 4 before the Franklin County Planning Commission.

Residents recently held their own community meeting, with 24 neighbors attending who live within a mile of the proposed project. All agreed they are firmly against it and don’t want the conditional permit to be granted.

KyLee Shumway, whose family lives and farms on Helm Drive, said residents recognize the need but just don’t want it in their backyard.

“That’s the hardest part for all of us. We really think what the ministry is doing is great and those girls need help, it’s just not the right place,” she told the Herald.

The close-knit community is in one of the region’s most sought out real estate areas for its bucolic setting and proximity to the river. Their main concerns are the safety of their families and the potential impact on property values.

Shumway said they don’t believe the property is as rural and remote as Mirror Ministries wants for the restoration home, considering it takes just eight minutes to reach Walmart and other big box stores. And Pasco’s Urban Growth Boundary keeps getting closer and closer to their county neighborhood, she said.

Residents are offering to refund the earnest money that Mirror Ministries deposited with the sellers, Shelly and Trevor Broetje, and say they will help the Tri-City agency find a new, more-remote location.

Shumway says if they go 10 more miles north, the organization could buy double the amount of property for their money.

MacFarlan did not want to discuss the details of the private sale contract.

She acknowledged that funding for the purchase is coming from “generous donors” in the community, including several Mid-Columbia churches, including the $80,000 received one year ago from Columbia Community Church.

The Broetjes bought the property on April 1 for $1.35 million, according to Franklin County Assessor records.

They don’t live in the house but the kennel business is still operating.

Restoration home

If Mirror Ministries buys the property, Sagemoor Pet Resort would close and five employees would lose their jobs.

Documents filed by Mirror Ministries for the State Environmental Policy Act say the project will be done in three phases and could take up to three years.

First up would be to remodel the existing four-bedroom home to make it six bedrooms, to add 450 square feet to the home and to remodel the office area in the business building. That would take up to a year.

Then the commercial kennels would be converted to a six-bedroom home based on the need for services and the availability of funds.

And finally, a new 6,000-square-foot, six-bedroom home would be built in the pasture area, again dependent on needs and money.

Mirror Ministries described it as a “residential therapeutic restoration home(s) for female youth that have been exploited, for them to find rest and healing. The property allows for outdoor exercise, gardening and equine therapy.”

A document signed in November by the Broetjes authorizing Mirror Ministries to apply for the permit as the prospective buyer further said the property would house “women and girls recovering from abuse in the sex industry or recovering from other situations where they have been held against their will.”

The exploited youth qualify as a protected class for group residential housing.

The homes will be high quality in line with the existing residence, and safety and security measures will be put in place for the girls and staff, the SEPA documents said.

There will be 10 staff members across three daily shifts to supervise the girls after the first phase. Eight will be added with the second home, and another eight for the third home, eventually making it 26 staff members for 18 girls.

While the property has a crop circle to the east and an orchard to the south, the project will not be taking over any agricultural land.

The Franklin County Planning and Building Department already determined the project would not have a significant adverse impact on the environment.

Loren K. Sharp, who is the organization’s representative on the project, said some concerned neighbors may think the homes will have an institutional look, such as a halfway house. Or people are worried there might be a giant sign out front advertising that abused girls are being housed there.

No signage will be on the property, the facility will not stand out to passers-by anymore than other properties in the area and there will be restricted access to the buildings to protect the clients, he said.

“They’re not criminals, they’re victims. They’re brave, young ladies that have had trauma” and need to heal so they can hopefully reintegrate and become valuable members of society, Sharp told the Herald.

He pointed out that Mirror Ministries has operated an outreach center in Kennewick for two years, and, while it does not allow overnight stays, it has not had any problems.

Sharp became emotional when talking about the survivors and how some Tri-Citians deny that sex trafficking is happening or just don’t want to talk about it.

“We all have things that frighten us, the unknown,” he said. “I believe with everything in me that people, once educated, will want to participate and they’ll want to help. They’ll say, ‘Wow, why was I afraid of this?’ All we need is the opportunity to explain to them truly what is going on here.”

Sharp added that they are not out to hurt anybody or to lower property values, and they have no delusions about trying to make everybody happy.

He just wants people to listen to Mirror Ministries’ explanation of the project and to be correctly informed before they make a decision.

Wrong setting

Shumway says she was told they were looking for a “rural, remote location” in conversations with MacFarlan. She thinks the organization is the one that needs to become better educated on the area it is trying to buy.

In the past year, two homes have been built next door, there is an established higher-end neighborhood across the street, and property behind was just subdivided into 5-acre parcels with plans to go up for sale in the near future, she said.

That does not fit the kind of setting Mirror Ministries is looking for, Shumway added.

She said a home for sale across the street was supposed to close Friday, and the buyers were reportedly backing out of the deal because of the future restoration home.

Residents are concerned “pimps” or people involved in the sex trafficking trade will come looking for the girls, or that the girls will run away and possibly come knocking on their doors.

The Feb. 4 planning commission meeting will be in the commissioners meeting room in the Franklin County Courthouse, 1016 N. Fourth Ave., in Pasco.

People are welcome to present support for or objections to the applications.

Written comments also can be submitted before the public hearing to the planning commission at 502 W. Boeing St., Pasco, WA, 99301.