FL- Miami Tries Shutting Down Sex Offender Encampment

7-16 2009 Florida:

On most early evenings, E. Albert Pallot Park in Miami is teeming with families. But just off in the distance underneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway lies a tent city, full of convicted sex offenders on probation, many trying to rebuild their lives.

Mother, Sonia Hedditch wishes they would do so elsewhere.

"I'd prefer for them not be here," she said.

Miami City officials say the sex offenders are violating its ordinance, requiring them to stay more than 2,500 feet away from a park. City leaders say the State disagrees because the State doesn't consider this a park.

The City has been trying to shut down the tent encampment. Tuesday, code enforcement officers put up a sign in the middle of the makeshift community, warning those who live there that if they don't clean up their trash and waste, and tear down illegally-built homes, they'll face fines and ultimately eviction.

But they're not squatters. The Department of Corrections actually places them here while they're on probation, and their ID's list the "Julia Tuttle Causeway" as their address.

"I cannot think of a less well thought out plan than placing sex offenders under a bridge; it is an abysmal practice of the state," said Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff. "It flies in the face of any civilized society."

But convicted sex offender, and tent city resident Homer Barkley says they have no choice.

"Well according to the ordinance, there's nowhere in Miami where you can find a place to live, a proper place to live."

Barkley hopes the tent city will be shut down only if the local ordinance is overturned. That ordinance forbids him from living at his parent's house because it's within 2,500 feet of a school.

"I want to go home, I want to go live with my family, I want my life back," he said.

But parents like Hedditch believe the ordinance should be tough. "Well they shouldn't have been an offender and then they could live freely where they want to," she said.

By Wednesday night the code enforcement sign had disappeared and it's not clear whether a resident or a city official took it down. Either way, the lawsuits filed by the City of Miami, and the American Civil Liberties Union over the tent city will lead to it either being closed down or made unequivocally, 100-percent legal. ..Source.. by CBS4.com