BREAKING: Volusia County Solves Absolutely Nothing with Sex Offender Residency Restriction Hike—Now Has More Homeless Offenders Wandering the Streets

Well, well, well… would you look at that? A couple of years ago Volusia County decided it was a great idea to expand residency restrictions for registered citizens from 1,000 feet to 1,500 feet. Because obviously, 1,000 feet just wasn’t safe enough, right?

And what happened next? A massive drop in crime? Nope. More homelessness and less ability for law enforcement to even find the people they’re supposed to be “monitoring.”

But hey, we at FAC are just the people who’ve been shouting this from the rooftops for years. What do we know?

Volusia County now boasts the ninth-highest number of homeless registrants in the state. Congratulations! That’s quite the leaderboard you’re climbing. Deputies now get to play hide-and-seek with transient registrants who don’t have a legal place to live thanks to a policy change that—shocker!—backfired.

According to this article, even County Councilman Don Dempsey is scratching his head, saying, “It’s kind of alarming we have that many.” Kind of? KIND OF? At least Councilman Dempsey didn’t vote for the ordinance a couple of years ago when it was enacted. What did the rest of the County Counsel think was going to happen when you push people into the margins of society, close every door to housing, and expect them to just… disappear?

One “solution” being floated? Amending the ordinance. Great, why not getting rid of it, since it worked so well?

So to recap the logic:

Restrict housing options
Remove individuals from stable living situations
Increase homelessness
Make it harder for law enforcement to track them
Increase felony charges due to impossible compliance

And this is supposed to increase public safety? But go on Volusia, keep pretending these laws are working.