AZ- Sex offenders to get boot from shelter for homeless

6-17-2008 Arizona:

Phoenix's largest homeless shelter is about to present Phoenix with a new problem in dealing with sex offenders who live within its borders.

The shelter, Central Arizona Shelter Services, today will announce that it plans to stop providing services to convicted sexual predators. Currently, CASS is the only shelter in the city that doesn't turn sex offenders away.

And although turning away sex offenders will allow the shelter to use its resources to help other needy residents, city officials say the change will create new problems. The shelter provides those offenders a bed and an address, which officials can use to track them in the state's sex-offender database.

If those offenders are turned away, many could go underground, where officials can no longer track them. Residents who check the state's sex-predator database will no longer know where these offenders live.

Shelter officials wouldn't comment Monday on the decision, which was to be announced to city officials today.

But City Councilman Greg Stanton said the community can't ignore the problem.

"I think their decision is going to spur a huge community discussion among the state, city, residents and non-profits," Stanton said.


Many restrictions

A combination of factors limits where sex offenders can live once they have completed their sentences.


• A 2005 state law, promoted by Phoenix officials, law enforcement and residents, was designed to prevent clusters of sex offenders. The law prohibits apartment owners from renting more than 10 percent of their units to sex offenders on probation. Of that 10 percent, only one of those renters can be a Level 3 sex offender, the classification for those most likely to reoffend.


• The Phoenix Police Department's Crime Free Multi-Housing Program discourages landlords from renting to felons. The program has 1,400 registered properties, amounting to 149,800 rental units.


• Many offenders can't go home after they're released, sometimes because their probation bars them from being near children, sometimes because their ashamed families won't take them back.

The many restrictions leave few places for offenders to turn, said Therese Wagner, who oversees the sex-offender program for adult probation for Maricopa County. "You can imagine what that does to people's choices," Wagner said.

CASS was the only shelter in Phoenix that accepted registered sex offenders, she said, adding that the shelter has been a good partner.

"What we work for always is a permanent residence," Wagner said. "When they are stable, their risk goes down."

Wagner said her department monitors 20 to 25 individuals at CASS out of 1,800 sex offenders in Maricopa County.

In April and May, the Arizona Department of Corrections released 111 convicted sex offenders. Twelve were homeless and went to a shelter somewhere in the state, according to a DOC spokesman.


Offenders in Phoenix

Founded in 1984, Central Arizona Shelter Services runs a 400-bed shelter and several outdoor overnight housing areas at 230 S. 12th Ave.

It provides job counseling and other services to as many as 800 people each day. It is open to all homeless individuals but does not provide services for children or families except in emergencies.

An estimated 100 registered sex offenders are clients at CASS; 56 occupy beds there. The state law prohibiting clusters of sex offenders at one address applies only to apartment complexes and other residences, not shelters.

Some city officials fear that sex offenders are sapping the limited services at the shelter.

The shelter's plan will have it stop serving registered sex offenders in December 2009. The group will notify the city of its plans officially at a Phoenix City Council public-safety subcommittee meeting at 10 this morning. The CASS board is expected to make the decision final this afternoon.

Councilman Claude Mattox, who chairs the public safety subcommittee, said he is going to direct city staff to look at the possibility of identifying a location for housing convicted sex offenders.

Mattox said it's in the community's best interest to know where registered sex offenders are living. Their only obligation is to give local authorities a location, he said. He believes a permanent address is better than "under the Seventh Avenue Bridge."

Housing isn't the only factor in returning an offender to the community, said Maia Christopher, executive director of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.

She said shelters don't offer the types of services sex offenders need to succeed: specialized counseling, job support and positive social environments.

"A lot of time people argue, 'Why do offenders get these types of services?' " she said. "If the offender is successful, the community is successful. People aren't victimized."

Accurate or not, the sex-offender registry alone won't keep people safe, said Grier Weeks, director of PROTECT, a national pro-child, anti-crime association. The group pushes for stronger safety measures, such as electronic tracking and hiring more probation officers.

"We've got to stop this charade that because someone is registered, that they're being monitored," Weeks said. "The fact that someone's name and address is on the Internet does not make children ... safer."

The shelter's decision gives Phoenix about 18 months to work out another solution for the 100 offenders in question, plus others likely to be released from prison later. They hope by then a new plan will be in place.

"There's no specific entity that's tasked with dealing with the homeless," Stanton said. "It's not a direct city responsibility. It's something we do because it's the right thing to do." ..News Source.. by Sadie Jo Smokey, The Arizona Republic