FL- Miami-Dade sued over sex-offender housing law

7-9-2009 Florida:

The ACLU of Florida on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging a Miami-Dade County ordinance that attempts to remove homeless sex offenders who live under the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

The county's 2,500-foot residency restriction conflicts with state law, which makes it unlawful for convicted sex offenders to live within 1,000 feet of a school, day-care center, park or playground, according to the suit.

The county, like the city of Miami, argues that the sex offender encampment is 1,200 feet from an island that it considers a public park.

Miami also has a 2,500-foot residency law, as do many other South Florida municipalities, making it almost impossible for sex offenders to find housing, ACLU leaders have said.

Upon hearing of the ACLU action, Miami leaders on Thursday instructed the city's attorney to prepare a lawsuit against the state of Florida to have the sex offenders removed from under the causeway.

The property is owned by the state, which thus far has failed to come up with a solution to the problem. Government leaders want a unified rule for every municipality that would give sex offenders a place to live -- and not isolate them in one municipality.

''This is years of finger-pointing by the state, county and city governments -- all pointing at each other. And, in the meantime, we have people living in a shantytown making the community less safe, not more safe,'' said Howard Simon of the ACLU.

At a Miami City Commission meeting Thursday, Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, said the number of sex offenders under the bridge has swelled to 140, with 40 of them on probation. As for the others, ``we have no idea who they are.''

``We all close our eyes and we all hope for some reason they'll vanish.''

The commissioners voted unanimously to sue the state, forcing them to remove the squatters because they are violating the city's 2,500-foot law. ..Source.. by JULIE KNIPE BROWN AND CHARLES RABIN