CA- Parolees say they were directed to homeless encampment by their parole officers

10-15-2009 California:

Parolees ordered to leave by 5 a.m. today, before camp's disbandment next month

When 40-year-old Rodney Acevedo was released from state prison in July, the parolee said, he was given two options for housing in the area.

A convicted sex offender who had also served time for battery on a police officer, Acevedo tried making the first option work. He rented a room in a Visalia group home for $600 a month.

But then, only months after the state had yanked housing subsidies for all parolees in a round of budget cuts, the license for that home and several others in Visalia were revoked in a state audit, leaving no sanctioned homes for sex offenders in town. Acevedo sought out his parole officer, who, he said, gave him a clear order.

"He said the only place you can go is to the river," Acevedo said.

He meant the St. Johns River, Acevedo said, where more than 200 homeless people live on the sandy north bank between Ben Maddox Way and Dinuba Boulevard. In existence off and on for more than seven years, the camp swelled in size this year, with some new residents settling in after job losses and foreclosures.

Authorities last week cited the population increase and landowner complaints when announcing plans to disband the camp next month.

Yet residents of the camp say its growth has been fueled in part by state parole officers. Those officers have directed recently released state inmates, including sex offenders, to the area just north of Visalia's city limits, they say.

About 40 parolees, including 15 convicted sex offenders, were living in the camp as late as last week, residents said. In some cases those parolees were pointed toward the camp, residents said. In others, the former inmates were dropped off by their parole officers, they said.

All declined to give the names of the officers for fear of reprisals.

"My parole officer dropped me off at the gate," said 26-year-old Tim Ledger, referring to the entrance to the camp along the river levee at Ben Maddox.

Ledger, who was convicted of lewd acts on a minor and who's been a parolee for six years, said he lost his handyman business and housing after a knee injury. He was prevented from moving in with relatives because of state laws regulating where a sex offender can live, he said.

"I had no choice but to come here," he said Tuesday, standing outside a collection of tents in the camp.

State parole supervisor: 'We don't do that'

Chuck Villarreal, a unit supervisor with the state parole office in Visalia, denied Tuesday that any of his officers have directed parolees toward the St. Johns homeless camp, saying the claims by residents are "factually incorrect."

"We don't do business that way," he said. "Parole doesn't try to be secretive about what we do. We don't do that."

Villarreal said parolees learn about the camp from other former inmates and wind up there of their own accord. He added, however, that his officers have closely monitored the parolees living in the camp.

As of last week, there were 16, including 14 sex offenders, he said. (Previous estimates by the Tulare County Sheriff's Department put the total at about five, with two sex offenders.)

Members of the latter group, who are required to wear GPS-monitoring devices and check in with their case officers at least once a week, have not increased in number during the past year, Villarreal said.

He said sex offenders make up the majority of parolees at the camp because a 2006 state law restricts where they can live — nowhere within 2,000 feet of a school or park — and eliminates charitable housing options such as the Visalia Rescue Mission, which is close to George McCann Memorial Catholic School.

That, plus the recent closure of the group homes in Visalia and the elimination of housing subsidies, means most parolees are now on their own in the search for homes, Villarreal said.

"These guys are going to have to start looking a little harder," he said. "The Parole Division is not in the housing business."

5 a.m. eviction

And the parolees camped out on the St. Johns will have to start looking for new shelter starting today.

While most other residents of the camp have until the county's Nov. 16 deadline to pull up stakes, an order by the Visalia parole office last week set the eviction deadline for parolees at 5 a.m. today.

That is one day before a site visit by authorities, including social, mental health and housing workers, who will try to find housing and services for many of the camp's residents.

The parolees said the early eviction is an attempt by parole officials to save face, removing the parolees from the area before they can be counted. Many also said the short notice, which came only late last week, has not provided them enough time to find other shelter, and that they'll be forced to camp out on the streets or retreat to far-flung campsites in the foothills.

If they resist moving, they said they were told, they'll be arrested.

"I don't know what they expect us to do," Ledger said.

The eviction perplexed several authorities who have been organizing Thursday's site visit.

"This is the first time I've heard of it," said Capt. Dave Williams, who's led the aid effort for the Tulare County Sheriff's Department.

Villarreal said Tuesday that he ordered the early eviction but not the arrest order. He said he told a sheriff's official about the eviction last week, but he declined to say who that official was.

The short notice is reasonable, Villarreal said.

"If they just have a backpack, it's not that hard for them to get up and move," he said.

Waiting until after Thursday's site visit might have been an option, he added, but the parolees at the camp "already know about most of those services."

"If I give them 30 days [to move out], they'll take all 30 days," he said. "We did this because I think it's the best thing to do. I wanted them out of there." ..Source.. by Brett Wilkison