CA: Elk Grove will (of course) exclude people who have committed sex offenses from their homeless shelter

Source: msn.com 9/6/23 Elk Grove plans to open a temporary winter shelter for the city’s unhoused, starting later this year and lasting for five months. Officials on Tuesday announced the plan for the vacant Rite Aid drug store at Elk Grove Boulevard and Waterman Road. The city-owned site would open Nov. 1 through March 31, officials said. Dubbed an “Enhanced Winter Sanctuary,” the site will be able to house up to 30 people and will provide opportunities for people to access social services, resources and housing, said Elk Grove housing…

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FAC: Florida homeless registrants lose appeal against Miami-Dade

[floridaactioncommittee.org – 9/9/20] Sadly, the homeless registrants in Miami-Dade lost their appeal to the 11th Circuit in a decision returned today. The loss was on a technicality – whether the suit can be construed as an “as applied” challenge vs. a “facial challenge”. The 11th circuit’s decision was that the plaintiffs didn’t bring their case “as applied” to the John Doe plaintiffs from the get-go and therefore the Defendants didn’t have a fair chance to defend accordingly. Read the full article  

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FL: Tampa Opens Tent Shelter For Homeless [except registrants] During Coronavirus Pandemic

[floridaactioncommittee.org – 3/30/20] Even in states of emergency, governments take any opportunity to kick persons required to register as sex offenders. With a county-wide order for people to stay indoors now in effect, the city of Tampa is establishing a tent city that will allow up to 100 homeless people to shelter in place. The city will pay Catholic Charities Diocese of St. Petersburg $120,000 to run a temporary homeless camp for the next 30 days. The shelter will be open to any homeless person except for registered sex offenders.…

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CA: Spitzer Applauds Board for Rescinding Vote, Warns Colleagues About Sex Offender Data

[voiceofoc.org] (Orange County, CA) – Supervisor Spitzer applauded his colleagues for joining him in rescinding their votes to place homeless individuals in tents in Orange County cities.  Supervisor Spitzer voted against the original plan, which passed 4-1, which he argued could place dangerous individuals—in addition to homeless who need intensive mental and substance abuse treatment—right into the heart of three Orange County cities—Irvine, Laguna Niguel, and Huntington Beach without a shelter operating plan.  The Bridges at Kraemer Place, in Spitzer’s district, operates with nearly 200 occupants who are screened for…

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RI: Crossroads will continue to shelter homeless sex offenders as lawsuit plays out

[providencejournal.com] PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Crossroads Rhode Island will continue to take in sex offenders at a homeless shelter in Cranston under an agreement between the parties to a lawsuit challenging a new state law that limits the number of convicted sex offenders who can be housed in homeless shelters. The parties met in chambers Wednesday afternoon with U.S. District Court Chief Judge William E. Smith. According to Lynette Labinger, a lawyer for the state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit, Judge Smith recognized that there…

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RI: Lawsuit seeks to block R.I. law limiting number of sex offenders in homeless shelters

[providencejournal.com] PROVIDENCE, R.I. — An advocacy group for the homeless is asking a federal judge to block a Rhode Island law set to go into effect Monday that limits the number of convicted sex offenders who can stay at Rhode Island homeless shelters. In a lawsuit against the state filed Friday in U.S. District Court, lawyers representing the Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project and six registered sex offenders argue that the law passed in September is unconstitutional and violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The suit asks for an injunction…

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FL: Miami-Dade Commissioners Want Cops to Arrest Homeless Sex Offenders on Sight

For 12 years, Miami-Dade’s registered sex offenders have been barred from living within 2,500 feet of any school, playground, or daycare. They’re effectively homeless by law, and today hundreds live in squalor in makeshift “tent cities” under bridges, near trailer parks, and on roadsides. After New Times reported on a camp near Hialeah, county officials called these encampments inhumane and unsanitary and promised a solution. That solution, though, apparently isn’t to amend the law or to find transitional housing. Two commissioners now want to simply put the offenders back in…

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IN: Frigid temperatures leave ex-offenders out in the cold

There’s controversy in Muncie over where convicted sex offenders should be allowed to live and the issue is becoming more heated because of the bitter cold. Mark called the city’s Jackson Street bridge home after his release from prison, where he served time for a sex offense involving a minor. When temperatures turn dangerously cold, Mark and four to eight other child sex offenders came to Christian Ministry Shelter, until the director got the news they must all leave. Full Article

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NC: Registered sex offenders given the boot at local homeless shelters

No more room at the inn for sex offenders. That’s the word from the Mecklenburg County Sheriff. We’ve learned that a number of offenders have used the uptown shelter as their registered address, but no more. 1210 North Tryon is a well known address near Center City Charlotte. It is listed as the Uptown Men’s Shelter. Type in the address in this state run search engine, and a place known for housing homeless still comes up as a residence for sex offenders. Keeping tabs on offenders here been a thorn in the side of Sheriff…

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VA: Sex Offender Fears Force Church to Close Homeless Shelter

A Virginia church will close its homeless shelter this fall due to fears that the site was housing sex offenders. “This was a rough decision for us because we looked at the overflow shelters as an extension of our ministry,” Reverend Tyrone Nelson, who pastors Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church, told WTVR News. Nelson added that it appeared that sex offenders were not only spending the night at the church but that they were “actually using our address. They were using the shelter and probably had been using the shelter on…

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