'He shot me': Survivor speaks as property insurance crisis limits human trafficking resources

Editor's note: This story contains descriptions of human trafficking activity that may be uncomfortable for some readers.

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) -- Gabrielle Triplett's story starts at a time when she was sleeping on the streets and addicted to heroin.

She said that's when sex traffickers approached her.

"They wanted me to do sexual things with them," she said. "I am struggling with a severe addiction at the time."

"I could see the drugs are there, the money, so I did what they wanted," Triplett said.

At that point, Triplett learned she could have the drugs, food and a safe place to sleep at night -- if she did what they wanted.

That's until she said her trafficker flipped a switch.

"I had to go sell myself and give him the money or he would withhold the drugs," she said. "If I didn't do what he wanted, he was very physically abusive."

"He would hold knives to my throat," she said. "He beat me so bad one time, I defecated myself."

In fear for her life, Triplett tried to escape.

But when her trafficker found out, she said he got a gun and shot her in the chest.

"In the moment, I'm like totally shocked because the gun went off and there's sparks and smoke," she said. "I'm like, 'What was that?'"

"Then I took a deep breathe, and I realized he shot me," she said. "Then my instincts kicked in."

She eventually spent 30 days in jail where she got a spiritual awakening from a man who came to visit her.

"He shared Jesus with me and he shared forgiveness with me and in that moment, I was just drastically changed," Triplett said.

She said in that moment, her chains of addiction were broken.

That helped her talk to law enforcement.

"I thought, 'I'm just a prostitute, I deserve everything that happened to me, I put myself in those situations,'" she said. "They were like 'no, no, you were being trafficked."

That is when Triplett found Selah Freedom, a faith-based nonprofit anti-human trafficking organization.

"I know now, I am worth so much more, I am smart, I am capable, I can do whatever I set my mind to," she said, smiling ear to ear. "I went back to college, I got my AA, I bought my first home, I'm unified with my family, I'm growing my family."

It's survivors like Triplett who are feeling the effects of Florida's property insurance crisis.

"With the increase in the amount for flood insurance and homeowners insurance, it has impacted the number of people we can serve," said Stacey Efaw, executive director of Selah Freedom.

Efaw said last year, the nonprofit paid $33,000 for flood and homeowners insurance combined.

Their quote this year is almost double that.

"What's sad is, right now we have people waiting three months to get into our house, but we just don't have the funding," Efaw said. "It makes it to where you have to make a choice, you only have so much money."

The Selah Freedom's Residential program accepts donations on its website.