Florida’s Elderly Sex Offenders Shutout Of Housing
Since 82-year-old Leonard Bailey hit his head in a fall eight months ago, he can’t remember to take his medicine.
His ex-wife, Marianne Devita, calls him 11 times a day to remind him about his appointments.
At that stage of dementia, many families would consider admitting him to a nursing home, but Devita said she has a list of assisted living homes that have rejected Bailey. The pages lined up are as tall as Devita’s grandson — whom Bailey has never seen.
“Nobody wants him,” she said. “Nobody wants a sex offender.”
Bailey is among a growing number of elderly sex offenders: People on Florida’s list of 73,000 registered offenders who are 65 and older jumped 2 percentage points between 2015 and 2016, according to the state’s legislative auditors, the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. Florida’s registry has about 10,200 elderly offenders.
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Another good reason to start removing names from the registry.