Ms. Burnley, 46, has lived in the neighborhood that sidles up to Avenue G for 22 years. And she describes it as a “haven for drugs and prostitutes.”
“When we first moved here, it was decent,” Ms. Burnley said. “But, crime took over the area.”
Burnley said two or three murders occurred only a few streets away in recent years.
One happened directly behind Ms. Burnley’s home.
About three years ago, a young woman was beaten in her apartment and then tossed into a garbage can, she recalls.
“I didn’t want my grandkids to grow up seeing that,” Ms. Burnley said.
She also said prostitution and drugs run rampant through the neighborhood.
“Prostitutes are one of the major problems,” Ms. Burnley said. “I don’t want that in front of my house.”
Ms. Burnley keeps a keen eye on suspicious people. She even notes license plate numbers and calls Temple police if she sees a problem.
She said one night she saw the same Mayflower Co. truck circle the block four times late at night.
“They have no business here at this time,” she said, and so she called the police. Apparently, he was searching for prostitutes.
“I stayed locked up in my house like a prisoner,” she said.
The biggest problem for neighbor Christina Hernandez is the prostitution, especially because she has a 9-year-old daughter.
“It’s not as bad as everybody thinks it is,” Ms. Hernandez said. “It’s just the prostitution.”
The hardest part is when her daughter asks questions.
“Mama, why does she keep walking down the street?” Ms. Hernandez recalls her daughter asking.
Then her daughter would ask why the women were waving at men.
It’s times like that when Ms. Hernandez said she’s at a loss for words.
Prostitution in the neighborhood isn’t just in the evenings. She said there is a steady flow of prostitutes in the mornings and afternoons on the weekends.
“It’s Thursday, Friday or Saturday,” she said. “You just know.”
But Ms. Burnley said it’s the first and end of the month when prostitutes beef it up.
These key dates are when paychecks are cashed, and Social Security and disability checks arrive.
“This is a rich area those times of the month,” Ms. Burnley said. “After the first week of the month, things start to settle down.”
When crime reached an all-time high, Ms. Burnley almost gave up her home full of memories.
“I had thought about moving,” Ms. Burnley said. “But we have paid for our house. I wasn’t going to let someone run me away from my home. To me, they would have won. This was mine. I plan on holding on to it.”
Ms. Hernandez has only been in the neighborhood for 2½ years, but already feels loyalty to the area.
“I prayed and prayed about this house. And I got this house,” Ms. Hernandez said, as a tiny white puppy flops around the manicured lawn.
“I love my house, so I don’t want to let that go,” she added. “I’m not going to give it up.”
