BRIAN WONG keeps a logbook of prostitute sightings. As one of the leaders of Southeast neighborhood group Montavilla in Action, Wong organizes prostitution-spotting foot patrols around the 82nd Avenue area. From July to September, his logbook regularly notes eight to 10 prostitutes seen—and reported to the cops—per patrol.
Then, earlier this fall, the Portland Police Bureau and city hall took notice, staging stings with undercover cops. Over 140 arrests later, Wong’s logbook reads a lot differently: almost zero prostitutes called in during the end of September.
So where are the prostitutes going?
Not into jail, counseling, or rehab, for starters. The police can only hold arrested prostitutes for an average of five to six hours, and then they’re released back onto the streets. And currently, Portland has no social service programs dedicated exclusively to dealing with prostitution. Plus, there’s a six-month waiting list for a bed in a women’s shelter.
“I get people all the time who call me and say, ‘Oh my God, I really want to get out, where can I go get help?'” says Portland Women’s Crisis Line outreach worker Crystal Tenty. “Right now there’s really nothing available for them.”
Prostitution in Portland certainly hasn’t disappeared. “Every time you push something down, it has to pop up somewhere else,” says James Pond, who runs the Portland-based human trafficking nonprofit Transitions Cambodia. Pond and others who deal with sex workers believe the crackdown on 82nd’s streetwalkers hasn’t helped women get out of prostitution, but merely moved the business off the street to motels, the internet, or other cities.
Anecdotal evidence backs this up. Until three weeks ago, Craigslist’s erotic services section usually had about 1,000 posts a week advertising sex work. Recently, the site has jumped to over 2,000 weekly posts. At a community discussion at Portland Community College’s Southeast Portland campus last Tuesday, October 7, former streetwalker turned neighborhood activist Jeri Williams related that five women she knows personally were moved up to Seattle. Their pimp reportedly feared the sudden spotlight thrown on 82nd.
East Precinct Commander Mike Crebs agrees that many pimps are probably moving women elsewhere to escape the heat. But, he says, that means he’s doing his job. “Anytime you start making arrests, pimps are going to go somewhere else,” says Crebs. “My job is to make 82nd Avenue highly undesirable as a place to prostitute… the citizens need some relief.”
Tenty, on the other hand, believes that while arresting prostitutes improves the neighborhood in the short term, putting prostitutes through the criminal justice system with no attached counseling or services really only makes things worse.
“I don’t think arresting people is helping. It gives them a criminal record and makes it harder for them to get a job,” says Tenty, who says she has met several women forced to turn more tricks to pay off their fines to the city.
One thing everyone involved in this polarizing issue seems to agree on is that the long-term solution to Portland’s prostitution problem involves creating social service programs (like housing and counseling) to help women who want to get off the street.
On September 23, the city requested proposals for a $250,000 grant to create treatment programs for prostitutes. That’s half of the $500,000 Mayor Tom Potter promised to put toward curbing Portland prostitution at a press conference in early September. While Potter’s staff says that much money is “still on the table,” the lower funding offer disappointed some advocates.
“I’m really glad that the city is addressing this issue, but I don’t think $250,000 is even remotely going to put a dent in prostitution,” says Tenty, who is upset that the funding only provides treatment for arrested prostitutes. That means sex workers may have to get arrested in order to get help. “Everyone was kind of hoping it was going to be a much larger and broader response,” agrees Pond.
Commander Crebs says what’s needed is some patience. “I just can’t snap my fingers and have a treatment program up and running by Friday,” he says. “It’s going to take millions of dollars and several years to solve this problem.”
Millions of dollars!
Let’s terrorize Seattle instead…..
“Mission Accomplished!”
Mercury readers-
I wanted to post my thoughts on the Montavilla Volunteer Community Foot Patrol. Our primary purpose of the Foot Patrol in its inception was to report prostitutes and create a safety presence. When our patrols first started in July, we would report up to 8 prostitutes in a two hour period. As noted in the article, we have noticed a significant decrease in the number of prostitutes on our patrol.
We consider this a success. We plan to continue patrolling. Mostly, because we realize that City of Portland still does not have any programs in place. The intitiative proposed by Mayor Tom Potter’s office to address this issue on the police level, to my knowledge, has not been implemented. We patrol as a visible reminder to the City of Portland that there is still work to be done.
However, I take issue to the statement “prostitute-spotting patrols.” We do not patrol simply to look for prostitutes. During our patrols, we walk the side streets and into the neighborhood. We stop and talk with the neighbors. If we come across someone that has a question or an issue, we seek to direct them to city services that can help them.
The logbook is kept for two reasons. First, it is required by the Office of Neighborhood Involvement that we track certain information. Second, it is helpful for us to correspond with each other regarding questions or contacts made during patrol that need followup.
We are also very thankful and appreciative of the support shown to us by the Portland Police Bureau. They have proven to us that the streets can be made safe, once the proper resources are given to them.
Regarding the use of Craigslist to front prostitution, I can say this. They have still meet in the real world. If you have a residence on your block that has unusual traffic patterns, or a business that seems to be a little shady, then you need to act. Call the city directory at 503-823-4000 with your concern. The operators there are a wealth of information.
Brian Wong, Coordinator
Montavilla Volunteer Community Foot Patrol
I’ll never understand suggestions for the types of social services called for by Tenty and Pond in this article. Instead of coddling, rewarding, and cajoling criminals into changing their behavior, we should make the punishment severe enough that people stop breaking the law.
Crystal Tenty is right, arresting sex workers without social services is not going to improve/solve the problem in the long term, and only offering services to workers that are arrested is even more ridiculous.
We keep hearing all of the opinions of the neighbors and government, etc, but we need to hear the voices of the sex workers, and it seems that those voices have been consistently silenced. We need to be paying more attention to organizations and outreach workers that actually hear these voices and concerns.
I have a comment.
Why do we need to “hear the voices” of the sex workers? If we were trying to curtail violent crime, would we need to “hear the voices” of all the muggers, rapists, and murderers? Would we need to address their “needs”? They’re criminals! Eff their needs; the only thing they deserve is to be arrested and punished.
Edit: Of course we need to punish buyers as well as sellers…
Mr. Wong and cohorts:
Congratulations. You have shifted the problem out of your neighborhood. That is a victory of sorts.
Now a different neighborhood is being victimized.
The children of your fellow citizens now have to worry about what their children may be exposed to. Do you care? Obviously, not.
The “sex workers” are still being victimized by the pimps and drug dealers that quite literally own them. Do you care? Obviously, not.
But they are out of your neighborhood, so you can feel quite self-righteous and self-satisfied.
Out of sight, out of mind. And I bet you won’t lift a finger to help those women, will you. No. It’s the city’s fault, isn’t it? Not yours.
And the city, meaning the mayor, the city council and the police are off the hook until some other self-righteous soul makes a fuss. This problem has been going on — unchanged — since the city was founded, and not once has a city administration done anything more than push the problem around the city. Do you care? Obviously, not.
And the victims? You don’t care any more than the mayor, the city council or the police.
Way to pass the buck, bucko. You could have helped solve the problem, to do something for which you could be remembered, you could have made a real difference to the citizens of your home town and the victims who are crying for a hero, but you haven’t the cojones, do you?
Don’t feel bad. The editorial staff at the Mercury are too busy re-writing press releases and going to free-food-and-booze media events to do anything more than whine about the problem.
What a group of losers.
I remain your humble if disgusted servant,
Jacomus