GALVESTON — It’s the perfect two-story house, with cheerful kitchen cabinets and shiny, hardwood floors.

But Cindi Clack is trapped inside.

All around her — underneath the sprawling oleander in her yard, on her porch, in the street — drugs and sex are sold like merchandise off a shelf.

Along the street, where Clack lives, and inside other houses across the island, residents hide from drug users, dealers and prostitutes as they plead with police to clean the vice from their neighborhoods.

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“We are drowning here,” Clack said. “That’s how bad it is. It’s so bad they purchase, they exchange the drugs in open daylight. It’s just open. It’s just blatant.”

But Galveston narcotics officers said arresting dealers and prostitutes for minor charges is just a temporary fix to an ingrained problem.

“We can enforce an area for 30 days, but then it’s right back,” narcotics detective Robert Owens said. “They’re complaining again. It’s a continuous problem. I’m hearing the same problems now that I heard about when I started here in 1997.”

Some Galveston residents aren’t convinced police are doing enough to crack down on dealers.

Gracey Money, a former police officer who moved to Galveston last year, didn’t know the house she bought in the 1000 block of Avenue L was sandwiched between crack dealers and users.

At first, she called police when she saw deals going down. She quickly learned the men she suspects are drug dealers have a police scanner. They would scatter before any patrol car arrived.

She took her concerns to the narcotics department but said she hasn’t seen any change.

“Why is this island so overrun with dope?” she asked. “These little dopers, the five guys that hang out on my street, could be caught. This isn’t the Colombian cartel we’re trying to bring down. They don’t even drive cars.”

But Owens said arresting the drug users doesn’t eliminate the problem.

Police have charged the man Money complained about three times for possessing drug paraphernalia. It’s a small charge with a small bond, and the arrest doesn’t stop larger suppliers or dealers, Owens said. “We can go out there and make $20 (crack) rock cases anytime,” he said. “They’re not going to go away. People think we’re not doing anything, but we can’t do anything but arrest them.”

Owens said officers try to build cases on suppliers so they’ll put a bigger dent in the island’s drug problem. Those cases have longer potential sentences and higher bonds.

But because there are only four narcotics detectives, organizing a bust takes assistance from other departments, and scheduling problems can ensue, Owens said.

Meanwhile, fighting among prostitutes and pimps, dealers and buyers keeps Clack away at night — along with occasional gunshots.

She said the drugs and prostitution emerged 20 years ago in her neighborhood. The problems are worse now, she said.

“I’m afraid to go home at night, but I’m afraid during the day,” Clack said. “During the day, at night, at twilight, in the evening. They’re always there.”

She found out prostitutes were having sex up against the side of her house. She suspects a random, abandoned boat left in the street in front of her house is used for drug drop-offs or prostitution.

“There has been enough,” she said. “There have been enough complaints, enough calls to police. It’s more than understood that there is a terrible problem.”

Money said she can’t walk her dogs or invite friends to her home.

“I’m being held hostage on this street,” she said. “When is all this going to stop? It’s just maddening because it is so blatant. If you shake (the drug dealer) down, dope is going to be falling out of his pockets.”

Clack said she could move away, but doesn’t want to.

“Have we come to the point that if drug activity comes we need to shut down, pick up and move?” she asked. “I don’t think that’s the answer. We’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing. We’re looking to police and we’re looking to city leaders and we feel like it can be done.”

Galveston police Sgt. Michael Gray said people should call police every time they see suspicious activity, even if it has become common in the neighborhood.

“The more intelligence we have about what’s going on, the more accurately we can go after the people we need to go after,” he said. “We can do an analysis of the times that it’s going on, the descriptions and send in a specialized unit.”

Callers should make sure to give detailed descriptions of suspicious people, Gray said.

When descriptions are vague, police might not be able to establish reasonable cause to stop the person callers complained about.

Residents can also start a neighborhood watch unit, where neighbors team up to spot crime and tip off police, Gray said.

The community services department also offers neighborhood intervention services, where they set up in a house and monitor neighborhood crime for days.

Those strategies could help turn around the neighborhoods, something Clack said she is committed to working toward.

“We are trying to attract people to the island, people with families,” she said. “What are they going to come here and see? They don’t want to see a 17-year-old crackhead flagging down cars to sell herself for sex. Galveston is worth more than just letting go. Galveston doesn’t deserve this plight.”