About 250 of Ottawa's sex workers are working the street simply for survival, with nobody to turn to for help or support as they try to make enough money to live.

Two women are reaching out to that group of women through an aboriginal support centre, with CTV Ottawa offered a rare look into their jobs.

The Sex Trade Outreach Mobile Team (STORM) was developed by aboriginal women's support centre Minwaashin Lodge because of the disproportionate number of aboriginal women in the sex trade.

The group has provided help for five years to all sex workers who exchange sex for money to pay for places to sleep, food or drugs in case of addiction.

"It is one of the most underserved populations of marginalized women," said STORM member Kimberly. "They're really good at understanding and recognizing there are many women we are serving and that we get to everybody eventually."

The female team said their route changes nightly as many women they support are couch surfing.

"Some of the women don't have many supports and I think they do view us as a primary support for them," said STORM worker Amanda.

The team provides food, clothing, condoms and referrals to leave the industry, with the average age of the women they help around 45.

"They're angels and I see them every night in my dreams," said Wendy, who at age 50 recently stopped doing sex work and isn't homeless anymore.

Poverty is the primary reason many women turn to sex work, with Wendy saying a divorce left her without a place to live.

"Selling my body and doing everything and anything I could – beg, borrow and steal," she explained.

Wendy said she's still battling a crack cocaine addiction but knew it was time to stop doing sex work.

"Actually last year I just went through a total hip replacement," she said, adding she's been violently assaulted and almost killed twice. "I saw the light I guess, I'm better than that . . . I'm taking it back."

Sex workers leaving trade after police warning 

Wendy isn't the only woman to leave the trade recently, after recent warnings from police about a pattern in sex worker murders have increased fear in the community.

"I would say 15 to 20 per cent of the women we typically serve have exited sex work in this time, and that's just in the last month," said Kimberley.

In the past 21 years, six murders of sex trade workers remain unsolved. This includes the death of Leanne Lawson in September, whose body was found in a downtown Ottawa parking lot.

"When the last murder had taken place, we knew that there was a predator out there at large," Amanda said. "There's a lot of questions out there . . . we were all frightened."

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Karen Soloman

Thursday: Part Two of our special series profiles a 22-year-old sex worker who has been on the streets for seven years.