Months after Miami-Dade County cleared out a camp of sex offenders living under a freeway, some of the former squatters are once again homeless, and many of the others are on the verge of being out on the streets again, reports the Miami Herald. Most are unemployed and unable to continue to pay the rent once the money that officials kicked in so they could find housing runs out.The inevitable result, some say, is that a sex-offender camp could emerge in a new location any day now.
"If they can't afford rent, we may be back to square one,'' said Jill Levenson, a professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton who is studying the impact of residency restrictions. "The problem with this solution it was only temporary, a band-aid.'' The old bridge dwellers are now crammed into a few neighborhoods because of residency restrictions designed to keep them 2,500 feet away from where children gather. When the camp was torn down, officials promised to find housing for the 92 men and women and to pay six months' rent -- a $1 million project. Now that time's almost up.
Posted by Valerie Parkhurst
Monday, November 01, 2010 02:50
As usual Jill Levenson ‘s inference that residency restrictions are a hindrance and her only solution is to continue to cram 10 pounds of offenders in a 1 pound bag. In this "Julia Tuttle’s notoriety, not even “Jill Levenson” can take this issue to a completed analysis. Did anyone bother to decipher exactly “WHO” makes up those “homeless offenders”? Jill Levenson’s only solution to alleviate this problem is to allow offenders closer to our families and children by eliminating “residency laws”. This Lynn University professor is long past her contributions on this issue when she cant fully incorporate many of these offenders are from other states, are foreign nationals or downright illegal. If Florida is to grasp and get a handle on its criminal homeless, then perhaps policies allowing convicted sex offenders from entering (Florida) and deporting those who fit every definition for deportation, should be looked at first, before this voodoo professor from Lynn starts recommending abolishing restrictions from those obviously pre-disposed to sex crimes.