Nelson said. "We're talking about 13-year-old girls left for dead in their hotel rooms without water or food for days. Pimps put logos on their bodies and they're treated like animals."

Geiger said Portland is badly in need of more shelters to help give the teen prostitutes a safe gateway off the streets.

"Often they end up in a juvenile detention center with less resources than they deserve," he said.

More often than not, Nelson said, the girls return to the street.

Escaping the Life
Katie was able to escape her pimp after waiting weeks for a bed in a shelter.

Roberts' daughter is no longer working as a prostitute, she said. But the young woman remains fearful that her pimp will find her.

Alston, who now works at a restaurant, said she hopes theunderaged girls are smuggled in to accommodate the Navy sailors who come for the celebration. A woman in my life who I know basically as a second mother has been working with abused women for years, and when she tells me these stories they are almost unbelievable. I grew up on 82nd and have seen firsthand how women are treated in that area. Portland also has a large homeless population for pimps to tap into. The sex trade in this city is filthy, yet in the mainstream it is seen as a "hip" form of entertainment. Strip clubs here cater to the alternative crowds and boast of fire breathing strippers and acrobatics. Stripping is seen as skillful act of will rather than an occupation that has been thrust