FAC has reported a public health and safety concern to the Broward and Miami-Dade County Health Departments, the Florida Department of Health, the US Department of Health and Human Services and OSHA. The letter, which can be read below, seeks to end the practice of forcing thousands of individuals who are labeled sex offenders to to live like animals in homeless encampments throughout our state.<\/p>\n
Our goal is not to displace people, but to stop this inhumane, degrading, unsanitary and unsafe practice that has been going on too long.<\/p>\n
_____<\/p>\n
August 3, 2017<\/p>\n
Broward County Health Department
\n2421 SW 6th Ave
\nFort Lauderdale, FL 33315<\/p>\n
Miami-Dade County Health Department
\n1350 NW 14th St
\nMiami, FL 33125<\/p>\n
Florida Department of Health
\nBroward County Administrative Center
\n780 S.W. 24th Street
\nFort Lauderdale, FL 33315<\/p>\n
US Department of Health and Human Services
\n200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
\nWashington, D.C. 20201<\/p>\n
US Department of Labor
\nOccupational Safety and Health Administration
\n200 Constitution Ave., NW
\nWashington, DC 20210<\/p>\n
RE: REPORT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY CONCERN
\nFORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA<\/p>\n
To the Above-Listed Agencies:<\/p>\n
I am writing to report a public health and safety concern located in the City of Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, Florida.<\/p>\n
A recent South Florida news station reported that dozens of registered sex offenders were living homeless at a Walmart1 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. A similar situation was reported as occurring in Cocoa, Florida2.
\nA search of the Florida Sex Offender Registry3 reveals that there are over ONE HUNDRED individuals living homeless at or near the Target shopping plaza located at the corner of Oakland Park Boulevard and Federal Highway in Ft. Lauderdale. Similarly, there are approximately TWO HUNDRED FIFTY individuals living homeless at or near the corner of 71st Street and NW 36th Avenue in Miami.<\/p>\n
Studies4 report, that thousands of individuals in Florida are rendered homeless, not because they are unable to afford suitable housing or live with supportive family members or friends, but because sex offender residency restrictions prohibit them from doing so. Further, the severely limited housing options force these individuals to cluster in very limited areas that available to those on the registry.<\/p>\n
The consequence of these severely deleterious residency restrictions is the situation the media has been reporting on; hundreds of homeless sex offenders living in a supermarket parking lot.<\/p>\n
The Florida Action Committee (FAC) is a not-for-profit public safety advocacy organization. Our concern is both for the individuals who were legislated into homelessness and the community in those areas in which they are clustered.<\/p>\n
For the individuals; indefinite forced homelessness exposes them to health and safety issues. Their physical health, mental well-being, susceptibility to violence and triggers for substance use and recidivism are a concern.<\/p>\n
For the community, unquestionably public safety should be a concern, as should public health and workplace safety of the people who live, work and shop in those areas. Environmental concerns should also be taken into consideration. One must wonder; where do these one hundred people urinate and defecate at night?<\/p>\n
Our request is that your agencies formally investigate the impact of having hundreds of individuals living homeless and clustered into such concentrated areas. While the knee-jerk reaction might be to close off the area and disburse the homeless, we strongly discourage this measure, since there is nowhere for these people to go that is compliant with the residency restriction laws and dispelling them will only serve to stress and destabilize them and drive them underground.<\/p>\n
Our hope in formally reporting this public health and safety concern is that you will work with local authorities, politicians and other stake-holders to find solutions to address this problem.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Gail Colletta, President
\nFlorida Action Committee, Inc.<\/p>\n
1 https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local-10-investigates\/are-sex-offenders-living-where-you-shop-some-use-shopping-centers-as-addresses<\/p>\n
2 https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/inside-edition\/registered-sex-offenders-including-sexual-predators-found-to-list-walmart-as-home-address<\/p>\n
3 http:\/\/offender.fdle.state.fl.us\/offender\/offenderSearchNav.do?link=advanced<\/p>\n
4 Yung, Corey Rayburn. \u201cBanishment by a thousand laws: Residency restrictions on sex offenders.\u201d Wash. UL Rev. 85 (2007): 101.
\nLevenson, Jill S. \u201cCollateral consequences of sex offender residence restrictions.\u201d Criminal Justice Studies 21.2 (2008): 153-166.,
\nLevenson, J., Ackerman, A. R., Socia, K. M., & Harris, A. J. (2015). Where for art thou? Transient sex offenders and residence restrictions. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 26(4), 319-344
\nWernick, Steven J. \u201cIn Accordance with a Public Outcry: Zoning Out Sex Offenders Through Residence Restrictions in Florida.\u201d Fla. L. Rev. 58 (2006): 1147.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recopied from Florida Action Committee Public Health and Safety Complaint Lodged Against Forced Homeless Encampment by\u00a0Florida Action Committee FAC has reported a public health and safety concern to the Broward and Miami-Dade County Health Departments, the Florida Department of Health, the US Department of Health and Human Services and OSHA. The letter, which can be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,9],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-2497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sex-offender-laws-updates","category-sex-offender-news","tag-florida-sex-offender-one-stop-resource"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2544,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions\/2544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexoffenderonestopresource.com\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}