11-22-2009 Florida:
A tent city in Auburndale was shut down, and some sex offenders living there face another move because of county rules.
AUBURNDALE | A group of sexual predators uprooted Thursday from an Auburndale tent city have moved to a nearby mobile home park, but they must move out by Wednesday or face arrest.
Park owner Lori Crump, who has allowed the group temporary residence there, criticizes the county ordinance requiring the men to move, saying it has increased the number of homeless sexual predators.
The ordinance, passed in 2006, imposed more restrictions on sex offenders and predators. As a result, residences that are less than 1,000 feet from school bus stops and churches, including Tropical Moon mobile home park, are off limits to predators.
Supporters have said the ordinance is for the protection of the public, but critics say that it's had the opposite effect, actually increasing the likelihood of further offenses.
On Thursday, officials shut down a tent city in a private orange grove off Reynolds Road, and sent the offenders and predators living there packing.
Seven of the 18 homeless went to Tropical Moon, which is less than 300 feet from a school bus stop. Many sex offenders already live, lawfully, in the park. But a few of the seven homeless are classified sexual predators, making their presence a violation of county rules and a problem for law enforcement.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says they have until Wednesday to move. If they don't, he said Saturday, they will be arrested.
Crump, a former Florida Department of Corrections probation officer who worked with sex offenders, opened the park two years ago because she saw a need for sex offender housing.
She and others say the county needs a better solution.
With 7,000 bus stops across the county, critics say the ordinance has made it difficult for offenders to find places to live. And a transient lifestyle increases the chances an offender will reoffend.
"Law enforcement does a pretty good job of monitoring, but it's not the Department of Corrections' job to find them a home," Crump said.
Florida law defines predators as repeat sexual offenders, sexual offenders who have used physical violence, or offenders who've victimized children.
"That is not the kind of individual I want living under bridges and under roads," Crump said.
She says she does not know where the group staying in her park temporarily is going to go, but chances are high they'll soon rejoin the ranks of the 59 sex offenders currently listed on a state registry as homeless in Polk County.
Judd says there's no reason they can't follow the law.
"Predators and offenders live all over the county. I don't want to listen to their whining. They're felons. They're either going to comply, or they're going to find a place to live in the Polk County Jail." ..Source.. Shoshana Walter, THE LEDGER
November 22, 2009
Sheriff: Sex Offenders Must Go
October 15, 2009
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
March 17, 2009
FL- Homeless sexual predators sleeping in Lakeland field
3-17-2009 Florida:
Lakeland, Florida - Every night around 10 p.m. the caravan of SUV's and cars start pulling into a grassy field near Interstate 4 in an industrial area of North Lakeland. Some people sleep in their cars others sleep in the tents they've erected in the area.
They're all sexual predators who say they just can't find adequate housing anywhere else. Due to their probation requirements they must stay someplace between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
A probation officer from the Lakeland probation and parole office drops in to make sure that they are there.
One person sleeping in the field is a 21 year old sexual predator who was recently released from prison after serving a five year sentence for sexual battery and lewd and lascivious molestation.
His parents take turns spending the night out in the field with him because he is not allowed to stay at their home with them. His grandmother is upset about it saying animals are treated better than they are "Dogs get treated better."
State officials say they know about the problem and say throughout Florida there are about 60 homeless sexual offenders who are in the same situation. ..News Source.. by Tammie Fields
