Many sex offenders are often homeless

There is a difference between desperate and dangerous, and lawmakers and others do not -or- refuse, to understand that!
11-18-2007 National:

Thousands of convicted sex offenders are reporting to police that they are homeless, raising concerns that their lack of a permanent address could make them difficult to track, a USA TODAY analysis shows.
Sex offenders, who are required to register with police and often barred by law from living near places where children gather, list addresses such as a tent, "near a bike path," "behind a cemetery" or "woods behind Wal-Mart."

OFF THE MAP: Homeless and dangerous
LIST: Registered sex offenders by state

In Boston, nearly two-thirds of 136 high-risk sex offenders lack permanent addresses. In New York City, more than 100 registered at two homeless shelters. In Miami last month, 22 reported living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway that links the city to Miami Beach.

"People should be concerned about this," says Jill Levenson, sex-crimes policy analyst at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. She says homeless sex offenders are more likely to commit another crime.

USA TODAY reviewed each state's sex-offender registry, searched tens of thousands of addresses and interviewed officials in 45 states after contacting all states. The analysis shows:

•Two-thirds of the states allow convicted sex offenders, including violent predators, to register as homeless or list a shelter or inexact location as long as they stay in touch with police.

•At least a dozen states list hundreds of sex offenders without specific addresses. California registered 2,716 as "transient." Washington state listed 564 as homeless, but the number is probably much higher, says Carolyn Sanchez of the Washington State Patrol.

•Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maine and other states say the number of homeless sex offenders is rising. Landlords often won't rent to them, and laws in dozens of states and hundreds of cities bar them from living near areas where kids play.

"Residency restrictions are the linchpin for causing homelessness among sex offenders," says Frances Breyne of the Kansas Department of Corrections.

In California, about 500 have registered as "transient" since a law last year blocked them from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park, says Bill Sessa of the California Department of Corrections. They must report daily where they'll spend the night.

An exact count of convicted sex offenders who are homeless could not be done because not all state records are online. Some states do not list homeless as an address but allow shelters, post office boxes, highway mile markers and streets without house numbers.

Illinois prefers that an offender register as homeless and report weekly to police rather than register once a year and list a shelter where he might stay one night, says Cara Smith, deputy chief of staff to the attorney general.

Some states keep sex offenders locked up until they find housing. In Michigan, they are less likely to get parole than murderers, says Russ Marlin, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections. In Georgia, sex offenders can be arrested for being homeless.

Homeless sex offenders are not necessarily more dangerous than those with housing, says Laura Rogers, director of the Justice Department's office for tracking sex offenders.

She says, "The people you need to be worried about most are the ones who aren't registering at all." ..more.. by Wendy Koch, USA TODAY