NEWSSEX OFFENDERS

Are some sex offenders feigning homelessness to get out of registering with authorities? Michigan law enforcement and lawmakers seem to think so. In Michigan, homeless sex offenders, by law, do not have to report their residences because of the transient nature of homelessness. Since February, when this law took effect, homelessness among sex offenders has jumped by 62 percent, according to the Grand Rapids Press.

In Grand Rapids, Michigan, there are 750 sex offenders, and eight report homelessness. Two hundred and sixty report homelessness statewide. Authorities are not sure how many are really unable to secure housing and how many are just avoiding supervision, school zone restrictions and tracking by communities.

A bill has passed that would require homeless sex offenders to register, but it has not yet become law. It would require homeless offenders to register their shelter addresses, intersections or approximate locations. The concern, however, is that some of the homeless frequently move from location to location, indoor or outdoor, and it's not easy to keep updating an address, even if it's just an intersection.

While some feel that we have to pick out all the "bad apples" among us, it's impossible to control everything. No system will ever be perfect, so should all homeless sex offenders, many of whom are not pedophiles, be forced to register their addresses because of a few liars?

Jessica's Law, first passed in Florida in 2005 as a way to protect children from sex offenders, actually puts kids more at risk. Since Jessica's Law (Proposition 83) was passed in California in late 2006, for example, the number of homeless sex offenders skyrocketed from 88 to 2,300, all in the name of increased safety, especially for our children. This is because Jessica's Law restricts sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or a park. In cramped urban areas, however, finding housing outside of these parameters is nearly impossible, so where are they supposed to live?

The silliest part is that Jessica's Law doesn't restrict sex offenders from hanging out in parks and near schools all day long. They just can't sleep nearby. Shouldn't folks be more concerned with what a sex offender does while awake than asleep? California lawmakers are catching on, pushing Chelsea's Law, which would regulate where sex offenders can and cannot go during the day.

A person's living situation does inform where he commits crime, but in a different way than Jessica's Law assumes. Sex offenders are at increased risk for committing another sex offense if they are homeless. As we all know by now, the instability of homelessness and associated turmoil can exacerbate mental health conditions or trigger new ones. It's no different for sex offenders released from prison and sent to the streets with nothing to help focus their energy into positive behavioral change.

Some argue, however, that sex offenders really Read More »

We all like easy answers. We like things to be black and white, right and wrong. But sometimes, with a complex issue like homelessness, things just aren't this simple. And perhaps nothing illustrates this better than the debacle surrounding Jessica's Law and the soaring rates of homelessness among sex offenders in California.

Jessica's Law, passed by voters in November 2006, bars sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a park or school. Though these tough housing restrictions were meant to protect children from the threat of recidivism, it has further limited the already sparse number of affordable housing options for ex-offenders, causing thousands to become homeless. Since Jessica's Law was enacted in 2006, the number of homeless sex offenders in California has increased a whopping 2,400 percent. Homeless and children's advocates alike have argued that Jessica's Law is nothing more than "forced homelessness." A tough issue, indeed.

Even the California Supreme Court more or less straddled the issue this week, according to SF Weekly. On Monday, the Court ruled at a broad level that it is constitutional for the state to enforce the residency restrictions of Jessica's Law on paroled sex offenders. Then it passed the buck. Now, smaller trial courts will need to decide -- on a case by case basis -- whether Jessica's Law is unreasonable, vague, overly broad or unconstitutional for individual parolees within their jurisdictions. Since every sex offender's case, and the threat they pose to children, is different, that's a lot of cases.

In just three years, the number of homeless sex offenders in California has increased a whopping 2400 percent. Who or what is to blame for this skyrocketing figure? Believe it or not, it's Jessica's Law, passed by voters in November 2006 and designed to protect children from paroled sex offenders. What's a state to do when a law intended to bolster public safety is actually exacerbating the threat of recidivism?

Today, there are 2,200 paroled sex offenders who are homeless in California. This is up from 1,257 a year ago and just 88 in September 2007. The causal link between the passage of Jessica's Law and the onslaught of homeless sex offenders is undeniable. What, you ask, is at the heart of the issue here? Housing.

Jessica's Law bans sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park where children "regularly gather," according to the Mercury News. These strict requirements have created real difficulties for paroled sex offenders looking for places to live. Even if housing is available within approved areas, it may be unaffordable. The requirements have also created clusters of sex offenders in places like unmonitored motels, which are not sustainable forms of housing nor necessarily safe for children.

Everybody, including sex offenders, needs a place to live. If proposed legislation in Massachusetts passes, registered sex offenders would be barred from staying in homeless shelters, begging the question: where are they supposed to go?

There are few questions that get people as riled up as those regarding registered sex offenders, particularly homeless sex offenders. Serving this population can be difficult, costly work for homeless service providers. Residential restrictions make housing almost impossible to find. Stepping up security in homeless shelters can be expensive, and other shelter guests may not feel comfortable knowing that a level 3 sex offender is sleeping on the adjacent cot.

But according to proponents of the legislation, the real problem lies with the requirement to report an address. Since residential bans can make it all but impossible to find affordable housing that is not near schools, playgrounds, or daycare centers, many sex offenders will bypass this requirement by simply listing a homeless shelter address, which allows them to live wherever they please. According to the Boston Globe, 74 percent of Boston's level 3 sex offenders had a homeless shelter listed as their address.

Sure, this loophole presents public safety concerns. If we don't know that a level 3 sex offender lives nearby, how can we protect ourselves?

Last winter shelter season, my eyes were opened to the horrible plight of sex offenders living on the streets. Our street outreach team was called to find shelter for a man. He was a registered sex offender, so he wasn't allowed to stay at the winter shelter. He had done everything right, reported to the police and the shelter workers. But there was no shelter that would allow him to stay.

No matter what you think of the crimes this man committed, he had served his debt to society and was adhering to the terms of his punishment. Still, finding housing - even emergency shelter - proved nearly impossible.

Up until that time, I had rather a hard stance on this subject. I thought sex offenders were dangerous, a threat to society. Who cares if they have to continue paying for their crime once their jail time is up? But one look into this man's eyes gave me different point of view; he was so filled with hopelessness, so beaten down from trying to survive. It's a difficult memory.

I met Tim in Cleveland, Ohio. He's trying to make something of his life. But as a sex offender, it's nearly impossible for him to find the help he needs.

I don't know what Tim did to become a registered sex offender. But I believe an equally heinous crime might be our own society allowing people like him to suffer on the streets, sex offender or not.

Tim from InvisiblePeople.tv on Vimeo.

Veterans experience homelessness at a greater rate than non-vets in the United States. But a new study finds that minority veterans - particularly African-Americans - are disproportionately represented among the homeless veteran population. Today, a whopping 45 percent of the homeless veteran population is African American, proving that race is still relevant to any discussion about poverty and homelessness in America.

These findings were revealed in a study by the Homelessness Research Institute at the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The study was released shortly after President Obama rolled out his bold-but-necessary plan of ending veteran homelessness in five years.

M. William Sermons, Director of the Homelessness Research Institute, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that the factors driving disproportionate homelessness rates among minority veterans are the same as those causing disproportionate rates of homelessness of minorities in the general homeless population. "Some of the risk factors affecting African-American men are high unemployment rates (almost double that of whites) and highly disproportionate rates of discharge from prisons and the foster care system."

In a perfect world, race would no longer be a factor when discussing issues of socio-economic equity. But clearly, this is not the case. This new data exposes the complex and continued link between poverty and race in America, even among those who have worn the uniform. To address poverty, to end homelessness, we must confront these challenging issues directly.

Image: scanned

Housing sex offenders is no easy task. In many communities, there are restrictions on where convicted sex offenders are permitted to live, which can severely limit housing options. This core issue, combined with the challenges of helping a convicted sex offender become financially independent, complicates the task of serving homeless sex offenders.

This workshop topic: the challenges of serving sex offenders.

4:00pm - Moderator to room of 50: "For those of you who work with sex offenders, f you have a successful story you want to tell, or a strategy you want to share, please raise your hand.

4:03 - All kidding aside, successful strategies for serving homeless sex offenders include working with parole officers and knowing your laws.

4:04 - One comment illustrates just how interconnected homeless services, prisoner re-entry, and housing sex offenders can be: "Our shelter is used as a dump for the prison; people come straight from prison to our shelter. Ironically, we're right next to a school."

4:07 - Great observation: serving a sex offender is hard enough, but navigating all of the restrictions placed on sex offenders by society complicates matters.

4:18 - Talk about collaboration, our group of 50 is making a list of challenges of serving an individual sex offender and challenges that society places on sex offenders.

4:21 - Serving homeless sex offenders has its challenges, even though it's doing the right thing. One organization had a released homeless sex offender refuse to the rules of the program, and went on to brutally murder a 13-year old girl. Faced with the decision to continue serving this population or not, they decided to continue. However, they lost all of their insurance and most of their board members. It wasn't easy.

4:24 - People who are housed, employed, and supervised are much less likely to re-offend than homeless sex offenders.

4:25 - Serving sex offenders is a re-entry issue, not a homeless issue. Amen.

4:41 - Sex offender or not, nobody should die on the streets. Reminds me of this story. "When you humanize people, even sex offenders, 

4:43 - England and Scotland didn't impose residency restrictions (because they saw how well it worked here). Instead, they treated sex offenders as a public health issue. Statistic: 10-15 percent of convicted sex offenders will repeat offense, but 100 percent of convicted sex offenders will commit this crime once. We should focus on preventing this crime in the first place.

4:50 - How can homeless service agencies reach out to landlords to serve tough-to-serve populations? Answers: be honest with landlords about the nature of the crime. Also, supportive housing model, where organization pays rent and serves as intermediary between landlord and tenant, allows for early detection of problems and guaranteed rent for landlord. Win-win.

4:58 - One service-provider says that getting offenders into housing is the biggest hurdle; once they're in housing things are typically smooth sailing.

5:01 - Talking about serving homeless sex offenders can easily be over-simplified, or over-complicated. We need real answers for people's concerns about living in a community with sex offenders. People are scared. Sex crimes can be heinous. 

5:05 - Great answer: Look at this from a public health perspective. When is the public safer? When convicted sex offenders are living under bridges in precarious situations, or in permanent housing with supportive services? 

5:07 - This session has made clear that more research is needed on this topic. Data is needed on the summer of homeless convicted sex offenders and effective solutions. Researchers, graduate students, academics, think tanks - these service providers are looking at you!

5:10 - It's important to recognize that serving homeless convicted sex offenders takes a lot of patience and tenacity. It's not an easy job. But it's extremely important, albeit thank-less, work.

Homeless sex offenders who have served their time in prison face heavy restrictions on where they are permitted to live... even those who are out on the streets. Sheltering sex offenders is nearly impossible and financial assistance is not politically popular. Now, it seems that even one's last resort- living outdoors- is enough to put them behind bars.

Clearly, there is a need for laws protecting the public from dangerous predators. But when should the punishment end?

About a dozen sex offenders on parole in Merced, California were ordered to move from their established homeless encampment or face arrest. They relocated about a mile outside of town and set up camp underneath an overpass. They call the area "a dangerous part of town," according to the Merced Sun-Star:

The colony of about a dozen sex offenders was informed last week that they needed to move somewhere else, but were given no options.

The homeless sex offenders were told to find somewhere that complied with their restrictions, which include staying far from schools and parks.

Finding shelter for homeless sex offenders on parole is an unusually tough task, both because of state laws that heavily restrict where they can live and because helping them, especially in lean budget years, isn't politically popular.On Friday, they were told by California Highway Patrol officers and Merced County Sheriff's Department deputies that they need to go somewhere else within 10 days because they were living on private property.

Jesse, who finishes parole in March, said he's not sure where he'll go next. "I'm just tired," he sighed.

The criminal justice system is not the answer to homelessness. Regulating and controlling those who are unhoused is not the answer to homelessness. Both of these tactics are simply costly forms of denial. A comprehensive and coordinated re-entry program (with permanent housing) for parolees is far more humane and fair than isolating these people under a highway overpass.

Citizens, police officers, schools and day care centers in Rochester, New York are on high alert these days. Christopher Michael Loving, a Level 3 sex offender (considered at highest risk of reoffending), was released from prison onto the streets of Rochester, homeless.

The problem is not unique; without coordinated re-entry programs for prisoners, anyone can end up on the streets. Even people considered so dangerous that schools and day care centers must be alerted of their release from prison.

NOTE: This post is not meant to use exploitive fear tactics to cram a message down your throats, but this is a disturbing reality of homelessness.

The presence of just one homeless sex offender in a community creates unique challenges. Law enforcement must protect citizens from possible recidivism while controlling public hysteria that may ensue. Here's a clip from the Rochester Post-Bulletin:

Police Lt. Al Kuehl emphasized that Loving, 37, has served his prison term and is no longer under supervision. However, he must continue to register as a predatory offender until 2023.

Kuehl conceded that Loving's homelessness adds challenges. He told the people at the meeting that Loving must meet with police weekly and let them know where, in general, he expects to be during the coming week.

Regardless of whether Loving is indeed a danger to others, his lack of a permanent residence will change the way people act in their community. Law enforcement will also have to go out of their way to track his whereabouts. Seems to me, the tangible and intangible costs of this one man's episode of homelessness could have been avoided with a coordinated prison reentry program, or through permanent, supportive housing.