Sex Offender Housing Scarce(who here will house 1 or more)

High-risk parolees are unwelcome almost everywhere, and state officials are struggling to find places for them to live after release.
By Jenifer Warren, Times Staff Writer
May 31, 2006

SACRAMENTO ? Handcuffed by new laws, public anxiety and the objections of politicians, state corrections officials are struggling as never before to find housing for a steady stream of high-risk sex offenders after they are released from prison.

In Solano County, officials who could find no other options have resorted to housing a handful of sex offenders in a state parole office. The parolees, whose crimes range from child molestation to statutory rape, are sleeping on cots and showering at gyms. They wear satellite tracking devices, face an 8 p.m. curfew and are watched overnight by two agents.

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Their unusual fate illustrates a dilemma that is intensifying in California: Nobody has the welcome mat out for sex offenders. With the passage of stricter laws governing where they can live, parole officials are hard-pressed to find them homes.

"Housing them in a parole office is not an ideal situation," said Elaine Jennings, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "But at this point we are out of options."

The quandary is the latest flare-up in California, where roughly 7,500 sex offenders ? about 2,000 of them classified as high risk ? are on parole, most for three years.

Earlier this month, a group of sex offenders housed near Disneyland was moved after legislators said their proximity to the amusement park, though legal, endangered children.

Placement of paroled two-time rapist David Allyn Dokich in Riverside County sparked months of protests in spring 2005, and a year ago county supervisors approved a local ordinance barring sex offenders from living near schools, parks or recreation centers and requiring them to wear electronic monitoring devices at all times. Last week, the county established a multi-agency task force to closely monitor registered sex offenders.

The housing challenge grew tougher in California this year with the signing of a new law preventing convicted child molesters classified as high-risk from living within half a mile of any kindergarten through high school, public or private, while they are on parole. Offenders are deemed high-risk, Jennings said, based on the nature of the crime, the number of victims and the likelihood they will offend again.

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