FAC Submits Position Statement in Anticipation of Miami-Dade Meeting

Today, at 1:30 PM, the Public Safety and Health Committee of the Miami-Dade Commission will meet to consider an amendment to a County Ordinance that would allow police to arrest homeless sex offenders on sight.

The Florida Action Committee is in strong opposition to the proposed amendment and to the Miami-Dade County Sex Offender Residency Restriction itself.

In anticipation of today’s meeting, and for the record, FAC has sent its position on this matter in a statement to the Committee.

A copy can be found here: https://floridaactioncommittee.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Letter-To-M-D-County-Commissioners-12132017.pdf

The text of the letter can be read below:

 

December 13, 2017

RE:     STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION OF THE PROPOSED

            AMENDMENT TO SECTION 21-286 OF THE COUNTY CODE

 

Dear Ms. McBride:

I respectfully request this letter be submitted to the members of the Public Safety and Health Committee in anticipation of today’s meeting and be made part of the public record.

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 forced to live there, as well as the community in those areas in which they are clustered. Our membership comprises your constituents and citizens of Florida in other Counties, who have an interest in the above-referenced Amendment.

On Augusts 25^th, this organization wrote to the County Commissioners concerning the homeless encampment on NW 71^st Street and 36^th Court in Miami. Last month we wrote to the Commissioners in opposition of this proposed amendment.

Today, we write to reinforce our position on this matter and to ensure that our concerns are brought to the Committee’s attention.

Roughly one-third of sex offenders on probation are homeless and more than one-quarter those not on probation are also homeless. These alarming statistics are the direct cause of the Miami-Dade County Sex Offender Residency Restrictions (SORR), which has excluded these individuals from living in most of the County.

The overwhelming majority of the four-hundred plus individuals who are homeless would have someplace to live but-for the SORR. Undoubtedly, the overwhelming majority of the two-hundred-fifty plus individuals who are living without shelter or running water along the railroad tracks at NW 71^st Street and 36^th Court would not be there, but-for the SORR leaving that location as the only place for them to go. Most, in fact, were directed there by their probation officers!

As previously stated, if the proposed amendment passes, these individuals will be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either they stay in the area and risk arrest for violating 21-286, or they leave that designated location and risk arrest for violating the County’s SORR. In either case, to merely exist they have no choice but to violate a law, subject themselves to arrest and potential violation of probation.

It is inequitable to remove a protection afforded the homeless, all because an individual is forced to live someplace involuntarily and bear a designation they are saddled with involuntarily.

The proposed amendment will not solve any problems, only create new and more complicated ones. The County’s Sex Offender Residency Restriction (SORR), which legislates these individuals into homelessness, will now, further, legislate these individuals into law-breaking.

After over a decade of not achieving it’s intended objective, numerous studies proving it counter-productive and creating significant unintended consequences, it is time the County repealed its SORR!

We implore you to reject the proposed amendment to 21-286 and take steps to repeal the SORR!

Sincerely,

Gail Colletta, President

The Florida Action Committee, Inc.