Seattle’s Massage Parlor Outreach Project (MPOP) launched a new initiative in December 2024: the Midnight Supper Club. Every three or four weeks, MPOP volunteers take to the streets to check on massage parlors, but also provide supper and other essentials for those in need, and improve community relationships to mitigate crime.
The project was born after a string of violence and shooting of a 33-year old massage parlor worker on Jackson Street in November 2024 left the community shaken and fearful. The woman who was shot was treated at Harborview Medical Center, where she was transported in serious but stable condition.
Later, MPOP members met the victim during a check in.
“We formed a support pod to help her navigate the medical system legal system,” said Rosanna. Most volunteers with MPOP did not disclose their last names due to the sensitivity of MPOP’s work, so the International Examiner will refer to them using their first names. “[We] also started to talk amongst other massage workers and parlors about how to create more safety, especially during the night and with their working conditions.”
Midnight Supper Club was born from these conversations. “The idea for Midnight Supper Club was to be out there,” said Josh, another volunteer. “To hang out and have food together… be in the neighborhood, and have more people out on the streets when it’s later at night.”
MPOP began in 2018 as a way to connect with massage parlors in the district, many of whom have limited English and may face challenges related to immigration status. It began with the hope of creating a community space and time for massage parlor workers to meet, but the organization was quickly forced to adapt due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was a very isolating and scary time, of course,” said volunteer Diana Xin. “Since then, we’ve just built relationships with the workers who are there.”
MPOP had to build that trust, which was crucial for the organization’s ability to help. Xin said they met workers who were reluctant to join MPOP activities because they did not know the organization. Now, MPOP offers self defense courses, yoga, dance, and other group activities to massage parlor workers.
Midnight Supper Club is an extension of these types of activities. While MPOP volunteers were able to check in with massage parlors during the day, they missed out on late-night check-ins, when public safety problems were more likely to occur.
“Over the course of the year, we just learned a lot about different incidents like robberies and armed robberies,” Xin said. “In some cases workers were injured and that was really the impetus for the Midnight Supper Club.”
These massage parlor workers are mostly women, and most do not speak English or Spanish, according to a 2023 research study conducted by the UW Center for Human Rights in collaboration with MPOP and massage parlor workers. Most of them are immigrants and migrants without U.S. citizenship. According to the study: “These social determinations contribute significantly to the vulnerability and precarity that workers in this sector experience.”
On March 16, 2021, eight people were killed at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area, a tragedy demonstrating the violence massage parlor workers are vulnerable to. Seven of them were women, and six were Asian women. The murders seized national and international headlines. In response, MPOP organized a vigil at Hing Hay Park honoring the victims.
MPOP also recently met with We Deliver Care, a safety company who specializes in non-violent deescalation. But funding and staffing needs do not meet the demands of the neighborhood, members of MPOP said.
“Their operations right now are running from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the CID,” Xin said. “They’re not around in the evening.”
Non-violent de-escalations are a priority for MPOP, as police interactions with massage parlors in Seattle have historically been harmful to the businesses, leaving massage parlor workers feeling isolated during times when crime is high in the neighborhood.
In 2019, Seattle police busted 11 massage parlors in the Chinatown International District (CID) and Beacon Hill, arrested five people for promoting prostitution and money laundering, and removed 26 women from the massage parlors, who they connected with social services.
The police response was criticized by MPOP and others. At MPOP’s 2021 vigil in Hing Hay Park for the victims of the Atlanta massage parlor shootings, Emi Koyama, member of Coalition for Rights & Safety for People in the Sex Trade, said these SPD raids deprived the women of their livelihood without doing much to better their lives.
“They come in with a narrative that they’re rescuing people being trafficked, which is not necessarily the case,” said MPOP volunteer Josh. “[They] bust up the business and come in and really damage people’s livelihood.”
Because of this, MPOP prioritizes safety at large and listening directly to the needs of the massage parlor workers and residents of the CID at large.
“Those needs are resourcing youth programming and education instead of increasing criminalization and poverty that definitely exacerbates the cycles of violence,” Rosanna said.
MPOP said the Midnight Supper Club’s efforts have been met with positive response from the community, and volunteers are hopeful the program can continue.
“The work that we’re doing builds on the legacy of the neighborhood,” said Yin, another volunteer. “A bunch of volunteers just showing up to keep each other safe and providing basic needs for a neighborhood. And then, all at the same time, building community with folks.”
