The rules of street survival

Women who sell sex on the street have a list of survival rules. These rules aren’t written down anywhere. And they can’t be rattled off like the alphabet. But they are known. They are an amalgamation of lessons learned by instinct and experience. A woman who is new to the street is easy to spot...

A room of her own

Bella is happy. She has a lock on her door. For the past few years, she had been sleeping in abandoned houses, under bushes or occasionally in a hotel room — all with groups of people. She had moved from place to place, never able to stay anywhere for too long before she and her...

Things that are not okay

I’m standing on a street corner, asking a group of 20-somethings if they’ve seen a woman from San Felipe Pueblo. Her family is worried. They haven’t heard from her in two months and last week a cousin saw her in a pink-hued drug house in the War Zone. Her grandmother had called Street Safe, asking...

Friday Nights: Jan. 26th

It’s cold and windy tonight. One of our clients is whimpering as she searches through the bins.  The cold wind on her bare arms is painful. Tears are beginning to flow which happens often during outreach. Tonight we don’t have any coats that will fit her. It’s hit or miss with our inventory and you...

The deaths of three women

Within 10 days over the holidays, three of our women died. All were under age 35. Audra was murdered and dismembered. Crystal overdosed on Christmas Eve. Nicole was shot. We knew all three. Audra had only been on the streets a short while, so we hadn’t had the time to get to know her well....

Friday Nights: Dec 29

The Fair and Square has an art deco look to it. It's two shades of teal and has an offset two-story wall that has no purpose other than to remind me where to turn. The store is very out-of-place here among the hacienda style buildings. Perhaps a tornado picked it up in Miami and dropped...

Friday Nights: Dec 22

‘Twas three days before Christmas, when all thro’ the Fair n’ Square lot. Our clients were picking up gift bags filled with makeup samples, mittens and socks. The tree was decorated and tied to the light pole with care, In hopes that the Healthcare for the Homeless van would soon be there; Then the children showed up. First...

Cotton candy with your kidnapper

Yep. Good times. With her kidnapper.

The cost of selling sex

Most women on the streets of the War Zone will do prostitution at one time or another. Because they aren’t idiots.

Why the District is called the War Zone

Everyone calls it the “War Zone.” It’s a stretch of Albuquerque — no more than 4 square miles — that first earned its reputation in the 1990s. Since then, the nickname has became so ubiquitous the city — in an effort to fight the trend — started a re-branding campaign. Now we’re supposed to call it the “International District.”...