Sex Offenders Struggle To Find Places To Live In Missoula

5-26-2011 Montana:

MISSOULA, Mont. -- One of every ten people under the Montana Department of Corrections supervision is a sex offender. When they leave prison most of them end up in the state's two largest cities, Billings or Missoula. That's where Katie Burton comes in.

"We get to know these guys really well," says Burton.

Burton is one of two DOC officers in Missoula dedicated to keeping track of the sex offenders and making sure they meet the conditions of their probation or parole.

"They are actually a fairly compliant group. If I ask one of my clients to come in to the office they come in to the office," says Burton.

The Department of Justice website has a list of names and addresses for every sex offender living in Missoula.

If you thought the offenders would be spread across neighborhoods randomly, you'd be wrong. The data shows there are clusters of sex offenders living together. The reason may be not that they want to, but that they have to.

One of those places, the Clark Fork Inn on Broadway, is currently home to five offenders.

"They struggle to find housing, and so they end up in these multi-listing addresses, because nowhere else is available for them," says Burton.

Many apartment building managers and home rental agencies check the sex offender list or ask questions on applications that indicate when an applicant is a registered offender. Burton says some places, such as some trailer parks, are more willing to house sex offenders

"They are more sympathetic in that they will give them an opportunity. Just because they are a sex offender they are not necessarily going to trash the apartment. They are probably going to take very good care of it," says Burton.

Some offenders have trouble finding any shelter at all.

The Orange Street bridge is one of the busiest roadways in Missoula, but underneath it numerous sex offenders use the thoroughfare as an address to register with the DOC.

"Most of the people that are registered as homeless currently are not on supervision," says Burton.

Three offenders are registered to the Orange Street bridge, three more live on River Road, a dead end into the Clark Fork. Ten are registered at the Poverello Center, but director Ellie Hill says on any given night the offenders are probably not sleeping there.

Burton says anyone under supervision should be living in a real house or apartment, but for the one or two who don't have an official address there's a protocol.

"We require detailed maps as to where they are going. We still do home visits," says Burton.

One safe haven for offenders when they get out of prison is Missoula 3:16, a church-based mission on Mullan Road. It can house eight men at a time for up to nine months while helping them find housing and jobs.

"They are involved in counseling, group work, classes, work study programs, community service," says co-executive director Bill Payne.

Payne says the nonprofit was home to four sex offenders last year, but even after they finished the program it was tough to place them in housing.

"It is very rare to find people who are just going to, once they know a person's background, they'll actually rent to a sex offender," says Payne.

The DOC says an average of 120 new sex offenders enter the prison system each year, increasing the burden for Burton and others who take on the task of placing them when they return to society and increasing the likelihood that more and bigger clusters of sex offenders will be part of Missoula's future.

"Things are not going to change. The prison is full. We need to find a way to make it work for everyone," says Burton. ..Source.. by Matt Leach