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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ― Last week CBS 5 Investigates uncovered a growing problem in San Francisco's Sunset District: Houses of prostitution showing up on quiet residential streets. It's a situation that has generated even more urgency because of a controversial proposition on the November ballot.

The initiative would essentially decriminalize prostitution. So is that a good idea? To residents of the Sunset, who say it will bring more brothels to their neighborhood, the answer is no. But there are people who believe it's the right way to go.

Proposition K, which voters in San Francisco will decide on in November, would essentially prohibit police and the district attorney from spending any funds to investigate or prosecute the crime of prostitution.

Maxine Doogan wrote the bill. She's the head of a sex worker's organization that calls itself the Erotic Service Provider's Union.

"In my mind Prop K is about bringing equal protection to people who work in the sex industry," she told CBS 5.

She said sex workers, including prostitutes, are unfairly targeted by police, and charged with crimes that scar them for life.

"Why would we want to subject anyone to that lifelong negative stigma of criminalization. It doesn't benefit that person or society," Doogan said. 

Down at the the Lusty Lady theater, where the main attraction is a peep show, head madam "Miss Muffy" said it's a good step because: "Sex work is work. It's a job like any other job."

She told us the dancers at the Lusty Lady have been extremely active in speaking out for Prop. K.

Miss Muffy said the women she knows choose this profession, and for them, the prostitution laws equal harassment.

"In my personal experience, I know many many people of all genders who are prostitutes who do various kinds of sex work, do it consentingly and willingly and lovingly," she said.  

But San Francisco district attorney Kamala Harris said while that may be true for some, for most prostitutes, "Let's be realistic about what we are talking about here. This is not pretty woman."  

Most of the time she said the reality is ugly, "This is not about consensual maybe even glamorous sex work. It's about a threat to safety for many people, including the women and girls who are being prostituted."

Women like Saundra Domingue said she was domestically trafficked at the age of 16.
 
"It just became a vicious cycle of going from one pimp to another pimp until I found myself trapped where I couldn't get out," said Domingue.  

But in jail, she found her way out: through a support group. She's now a mental health case manager at SAGE, a San Francisco non-profit that helps prostitutes get out of the business. Her co-worker Dina Smith said young girls are often drawn in with tall tales.

"It's about diamonds. It's about big cars. It's about lots of money and the best food and fur coats, and the truth of the matter is, it's not," said Smith.

So what about Miss Muffy's claim that most women are consenting?

"They don't have any choices out there. You know if you're working with a pimp all of your choices have been taken away," Smith said.  

And how would Prop. K impact neighborhoods dealing with prostitution? D.A. Harris said police would no longer be able to respond to complaints.

"I don't want to see police resources being cut," she told CBS 5. "It's a real issue for people who are living in these neighborhoods. It's a crime." 

When they talk about 'decriminalizing' prostitution, it's just that. This would not make prostitution legal. The proponents said they're actually against legalization, because that could involve a whole host of government regulations they don't want either.

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