Are there any politicians left with half a brain? These folks are homeless because they cannot afford housing, so you turn around and pile another expense on them, only fools would do that! Are the politicians willing to pay for that too?3-31-2010 New York:
Suffolk County legislators are still waiting to hear back from Albany to see if a law they adopted last week requiring homeless sex offenders to wear global positioning system devices is valid.
On March 23, the Suffolk County Legislature unanimously passed a law that requires homeless sex offenders staying at county-run trailers in Riverside and Westhampton, or those receiving $90 a day from the county to find housing on their own, to wear the tracking devices.
The law has been sent to Albany for review by state officials who will decide if it can be enacted, according to Legislator Jack Eddington, an Independence Party member from Brookhaven Town who sponsored the bill. It is not clear when that decision will be announced.
The New York State Office of Family and Children’s Services, which oversees Suffolk County’s Department of Social Services, does not issue rulings on policies unless there is a clear plan in place, said Rob Calarco, Mr. Eddington’s chief of staff. “That’s why we had to pass the resolution first,” he said.
Mr. Calarco expects that it will be at least a month before the Suffolk Legislature hears back from state officials.
Though he could not be reached this week, John Desmond, the director of Suffolk County’s Probation Department, previously stated that it is illegal for the county to force homeless sex offenders to wear the devices unless they are on probation.
About two-thirds of the county’s homeless sex offenders, who have recently numbered around 20, are on probation, according to Gregory Blass, the commissioner of the county’s Department of Social Services. Mr. Blass’s department, which oversees the two trailers, declined to comment on the new GPS requirement.
“We have to get clearance from the state,” he said.
Earlier this year, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy announced that the trailers—one of which is located on Old Country Road in Westhampton and the other next door to the Suffolk County Jail in Riverside—would be closed within weeks and that the county would transition to a voucher program. But the County Legislature has repeatedly refused to approve a money transfer that would allow social services to expand the voucher program and shutter the trailers.
Mr. Eddington, the chairman of the County’s Public Safety Committee, said the GPS devices will cost $28 each, and that fee includes renting them and hiring an outside agency to do the monitoring.
Predicting that the trailers will eventually be shuttered, Mr. Eddington said he introduced the bill to quell the fears of colleagues over who will be monitoring the offenders once the trailers are closed. He said that there is nothing stopping an offender from checking into a hotel, using the voucher, and later leaving to go elsewhere for the night. “Which is wasting money and is illegal,” Mr. Eddington said.
Legislator Jay Schneiderman said he had sponsored a similar bill last year, but it never made it out of committee. The Independence Party legislator from Montauk said he hopes that the state will sign off on the county law soon.
“I’m thrilled that they passed it,” Mr. Schneiderman said. “I just don’t want to get everybody’s hopes up.”
Meanwhile, the stalemate over closing the two trailers continues. The trailers have been the source of controversy since their placement in 2007, and many East End officials and residents have called them an unfair burden.
Since the transition to the voucher system has been delayed, officials are looking at other alternatives to housing the homeless sex offenders. Mr. Blass said county officials are again considering resuming efforts to find alternative sites for the trailers in western Suffolk County, which they failed to do earlier this year. The county in 2009 spent $850,000 in taxi fares to transport its homeless sex offender population, which at times reached 30 people, from western Suffolk County, where most of them are from, to the trailers.
William Lindsay, the presiding officer of the Suffolk Legislature, said he is working on a solution, though he could not say what that was this week. Through an e-mailed statement, Mr. Lindsay said the voucher system isn’t working, and that the trailers unfairly burden the East End. He then pointed out that moving them will cause an “uproar” in other communities.
“I am not ready at this time to provide details about any new plan, which is still being formulated,” Mr. Lindsay’s statement reads. “The proposal will be laid on the table at the April 27 meeting of the County Legislature.”
Until a suitable solution can be found, the voucher system will go forward, Mr. Blass said. He added that he is optimistic that the issue will eventually be resolved.
"As long as there are homeless, and as long as there are registered sex offenders that are homeless, this will be a controversial issue, almost impossible to resolve,” he said. “But somehow we are going to do it, we are determined to.” ..Source.. Hallie D. Martin
