BILL NUMBER: S8874

SPONSOR: LANZA
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to amend the general business law, in relation
to information concerning services for human trafficking victims

 
PURPOSE:

To require lodging facilities to provide information concerning services
for human trafficking victims in certain public spaces of the lodging
facilities

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends the general business law by adding a new section 206-f
to provide that every keeper of a lodging facility make available in
plain view in the public restrooms, the individual guest rooms, and near
the public entrance or other conspicuous place in plain sight of the
guests and employees, where information is customarily displayed, infor-
mational cards developed by (i) the office of temporary and disability
assistance in consultation with the New York state interagency task
              

force on human trafficking; or (ii) the United States Department of
Homeland Security; or (iii) the lodging facility. All informational
cards shall only contain information concerning services for human traf-
ficking victims and shall prominently include the national human traf-
ficking hotline telephone number. Additionally, the office of temporary
and disability assistance shall develop a notice which shall include the
national human trafficking hotline telephone number, to be made avail-
able to lodging facilities to post on a voluntary basis.

Lodging facility is defined as any inn, hotel, motel, motor court or
other establishment that provides lodging to transient guests, but shall
not include those establishments treated as a dwelling unit or ones
located within a building that has five or less rooms for rent or hire
and is occupied as a residence for the owner.

Section 2 provides the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

We know that human trafficking is a $32 billion industry. We also have
learned that young girls and boys are being victimized in our state, in
our neighborhoods, whether urban, suburban, or rural, and regardless of
socioeconomic level. Yet even though trafficking victims may be among
us, we do not see them.

According to the Polaris Project, trafficking networks often rely on
legitimate businesses, such as hotels, to sustain their illegal oper-
ations. Hotels may be used to house victims while in transit or for the
purchase and sale of victims' forced services, with traffickers running
their business out of hotel rooms. The traffickers' ability to pay for
rooms in cash or to change rooms or hotel locations on a frequent basis
can make it easy for traffickers to avoid detection and purchasers of
sex can take advantage of the anonymity that buying sex in a hotel room
can provide. According to ECPAT-USA, service providers and law enforce-
ment agencies report when asked that almost every single trafficked
victim with whom they came in contact had been exploited at one point in
a hotel.

Because hotels are a known location for exploitation of victims, hotels
are an ideal location for presentation of information about services for
victims. Information regarding human trafficking services can inform
both the victims and other hotel guests about the availability of
services for human trafficking victims.

This bill will provide information about services for human trafficking
services on informational cards in public areas in hotels including in
the public restrooms, the individual guest rooms, and near the public
entrance or other conspicuous place in plain sight of the guests and
employees. For some victims, this information may be the only opportu-
nity to learn about services available to them.  Additionally, because
of the discreet size of the informational cards, it may be possible for
a victim to take a card unnoticed and use the card to call the hotline
for help at a later time.

States have begun to understand the importance of utilizing the hotel
industry to end human trafficking. Legislation to post a notice regard-
ing human trafficking, similar to this bill, was introduced in Califor-
nia earlier this year. Georgia enacted a law in 2013 requiring the post-
ing of notices in hotels as well as bars, adult entertainment
businesses, bus stations, truck stops and airports, among other venues.

With this legislation, the hotel industry can assume the central role it
naturally plays not only in responding to modern day slavery but also in
preventing it. We must take this next step towards helping human traf-
ficking victims escape their lives of violence and enslavement.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None to the State.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become a law.