Seeking to abate a surge in sex work, Salinas officials look to nuisance law.

Women dressed in skimpy clothing walking along streets in Salinas has become a common scene near some apartment complexes. Residents living around Kings and Roosevelt streets see sex workers regularly when they go to work, take their kids to school or attend church. And for months, they have been asking Salinas officials to take action to stop it.

This area has long been prone to prostitution and the Salinas Police Department had implemented strategies to crack down in the past. Previously, loitering for the purpose of prostitution was a misdemeanor.

In 2023 Senate Bill 357 took effect, decriminalizing loitering for the purpose of prostitution. (The law doesn’t decriminalize prostitution, just the loitering part.) The aim of the legislation was to reduce profiling, discrimination and harassment based on appearance and clothing, but in this Salinas neighborhood, it has had an unintended consequences: the proliferation of sex work.

“The State of California is making it difficult for us to combat this locally,” says City Councilmember Orlando Osornio, who represents the area.

City leaders agree there is a problem that needs to be addressed. “You have three square blocks of 30-plus women and a line around the block of johns, creating a horrible quality of life for our residents there,” Mayor Kimbley Craig says. She adds that she has spoken with California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister – who supported the bill – about the unintended consequences of SB 357. “He was just as surprised as I was,” she says. “We’re working with his office to try to create awareness around it.”

Without SPD’s old enforcement tool, city officials have been looking for alternatives. On Dec. 5, City Attorney Chris Callihan suggested adding the state’s Red Light Abatement Act to the municipal code. With that, city officials would have the power to declare repeated sites of prostitution as a nuisance, expanding the city’s ability to take action to seek a court order allowing abatement efforts. It would enable enforcement against property owners, and give the city a mechanism to recover its costs.

Osornio points out when there are more police officers in the area, loitering moves to nearby streets. “That’s not the answer,” he says.

Salinas City Council is set to vote on Tuesday, Jan. 9 on whether to pursue the Red Light Abatement Act and incorporate it into the municipal code.