Property owned by the Madison Community Development Authority in South Madison is suspected of housing prostitution activity.
According to the CDA Housing Unit Director Agustin Olvera, the resident in question is no longer living in her former residence. She was believed to have drug-related problems and participated in prostitution herself. She was evicted from the Badger Road area CDA residence without arrest.
The woman in question was not charged with a crime, so her name has been withheld, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.
Olvera commented that beyond her specific case, he had not read any further accounts or investigations of prostitution on the South Side, specifically the Badger Road area.
Behavior associated with prostitution is characterized by short-term traffic and frequent visits to the residence, according to Lieutenant Cameron McLay. This type of behavior can sometimes turn out to be prostitution or drug dealing, but in some cases it can be acceptable legal behavior.
“Prostitution is an issue that different areas, including [the] South Side, experience. We have in the past charged suspects with prostitution proper,” McLay said. “We get numerous complaints [of criminal activity], but we go in open-minded before launching a full investigation.”
Frequently the police will conduct a knock-and-talk investigation to keep an eye on any suspicious areas, Olvera said.
“The first effort is to make contact with all suspected perpetrators; we talk to them, ask them questions. These behaviors can occur anyplace,” McLay added. “They are generally associated with challenged neighborhoods, but they can literally occur anywhere.”
When asked about other occurrences of criminal activity in CDA-owned residences, Olvera commented that sometimes the CDA knows of such activity soon after it occurs; other times they do not receive such information for some time.
“It is an ongoing enforcement effort; we try to stay on top of this [type of criminal activity],” McLay said.
Olvera stressed that the overall importance of the CDA is to provide housing for low-income residents in Madison, as well as to work alongside local neighborhood police to meet once or twice a month to go over and share information about possible suspicious activities in CDA-owned residences.
“The CDA has a good working relationship with the police department, but communication doesn’t happen as fast as we want it to,” Olvera said. “We try to work with a number of agencies in the community, but it is a tough balancing act.”
The CDA has social workers that work with residents in the 900 citywide units to keep them from falling behind on rent or from becoming entangled in criminal activity and other legal issues, Olvera said. In addition, the CDA has a private security staff on hand for all residences.
CDA provides public housing such as townhouses, apartments, duplexes and single-family homes for low-income residents of the city of Madison. The CDA owns 327 units for lower-income families and 530 units for people over 50 with disabilities in 40 locations throughout Madison, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
