Bid to ban serious sex offenders from shelters draws fire

Shelters prohibit registered sex offenders access even in sub-zero temperatures. Lawmakers nationally fail to resolve this issue.. We urge folks to contact your local lawmakers and shelters, and ask them to resolve this issue before another freezes to death.

12-14-2009 Massachusetts:

NORTHAMPTON - Proposed legislation that would ban from homeless shelters those convicted of the most serious sexual offenses is drawing fire from local observers.

Put forward by state Sen. James Timilty, D-Walpole, and other legislators, the amendment is supported by the advocacy group Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance (MHSA). Timilty told the Boston Globe last month a major concern is protecting recently homeless families from sexual predators.

But Jack Downing, president of the Solider On homeless shelter in Leeds, said forcing sex offenders out of shelters is a bad idea.

"I think we have the right to ban them from being close to schools, but where do you want them then?" Downing said. "We can't just ban somebody and not give them an alternative."

Bill Miller, director of Springfield's Friends of the Homeless and a former shelter director in Northampton, said the amendment proposes much too simple an answer to a complex problem. Many sex offenders end up on the streets because their status makes it difficult for them to get housing, he said, and many go to shelters because they have nowhere else to turn.

"I don't think it's going anywhere," Miller said of the amendment.

Jessie's House in Amherst is Hampshire County's only shelter for homeless families. Rose Evans, program director for the Center for Human Development, which oversees the shelter, did not return calls for comment last week.

Northampton's three homeless shelters, Soldier On, Interfaith Emergency Shelter and the Grove Street Inn, provide services to homeless individuals, not families.

Soldier On and ServiceNet, which operates the other two shelters, both belong to the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance, according to its Web site.

ServiceNet executive director Susan Stubbs referred questions about the proposed legislation to shelter and housing services director Andrea Miller, who did not return calls last week.

State Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, also could not be reached for comment.

The proposed ban targets Level 3 sex offenders - those who have been convicted of crimes, including rape and indecent assault and battery, and deemed by the state Sex Offender Registry Board to be at high risk to offend again. All sex offenders are required to register with their local police department.

Under the proposed amendment, homeless sex offenders would be required to re-register on a monthly basis. Now, they must do so every 45 days. Offenders who are not homeless must register once a year.

One concern cited by Timilty and other supporters of the amendment is that many offenders claim to live in shelters but actually reside elsewhere.

As of Dec. 3, there were seven Level 3 sex offenders living in city homeless shelters, according to the Northampton Police Department. Three were at the Interfaith shelter, and four were at Soldier On. There were none at the Grove Street Inn.

Lt. Kenneth Watson said the department verifies that each offender it registers lives where he says he does. This includes contacting shelters, he said. Homeless offenders who do not live in shelters are required to describe where they spend the night, he said.

"I'd rather have them at a location we know about rather than have them wandering around," Watson said.

Shelter Alliance executive director Joe Finn told the Globe the proposed amendment could help shelters in tough financial times. State aid to homeless services was reduced by $2.7 million this year.

Also proposed is a requirement for all homeless Level 3 sex offenders to wear global positioning system (GPS) devices, which allow law enforcement to track their movements. Currently, state law requires GPS monitoring only if an offender is on probation or parole.

It's already nearly impossible for homeless offenders to comply, according to Marissa Elkins, an Amherst defense lawyer. She said keeping the system working requires electrical outlets and a telephone line - resources the homeless often lack and that shelters aren't always able to provide.

Downing, of the Soldier On shelter, said excluding sex offenders from shelters would be counterproductive in that it would reduce their access to the services most likely to keep them from reoffending.

"People don't get better because we say, #Don't come in my neighborhood,'" he said.

Soldier On, which is on the campus of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Leeds, offers a sex offender treatment program able to enroll up to eight people at a time, Downing said.

He said while there are often sex offenders among the homeless veterans at the shelter, none has ever committed a new sexual offense while living there. He said one client was convicted in 2007 of raping a 15-year-old boy, but previously had not been classified as a sex offender. ..Source.. JAMES F. LOWE, Staff Writer