30 sex offenders could be left without a home in Pinellas County

A tenant-landlord dispute may leave 30 convicted sex offenders without a place to live in Pinellas County.

The Palace Mobile Home Park is home to 150 convicted sex offenders.

“I had molested my 8-year-old son. I was sentenced to 11 years in prison followed by 15 on probation,” said Tracy Hutchinson, one of the park’s residents.

Hutchinson and other residents of the park are trying to get back on their feet.

“There isn’t anywhere else, unless I want to live in the woods somewhere,” she said.

Jim Broderick runs Florida Justice Transitions, a program to help sex offenders return to society. But a two-year legal battle with the mobile home land owner could mean 30 sex offenders living in 14 trailers could soon be out on the street.

“If I lose those units, come noon time on Monday, it’s out of my hands,” Broderick said.

That possibility is leaving nearby homeowners concerned.

“I don’t like it. I mean, I wouldn’t want my kids to be in danger. I mean, they ride their bike up and down the street all the time,” one parent told ABC Action News.

Lou Ellis and his wife have lived in the neighborhood for close to 35 years and says the news is disturbing.

“I sit there with my door open so I can see outside, see what’s going on,” Ellis said. “But I’ll have to start locking it, I guess, if that’s the case.”

Broderick says he has until noon Monday to deposit $16,000 into the court registry or he loses the 14 mobile home units.

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