All, we have an URGENT need to identify assisted living facilities or skilled nursing facilities in Florida that take persons required to register.
In Florida, people remain on the registry for life. That means that they don’t come off when they get sick or elderly. As the population ages, this will become a bigger problem and as each of us (or our loved ones on the registry) get older, this will become an inevitable problem for all of us.
What’s happening is people who are no longer able to care for themselves because of age, physical or mental disabilities, suffer a crisis, are sent to a hospital and then when their stay there expires, they are literally discarded because they require a nursing care facility, but none will take them because of residency restrictions or they simply don’t want the stigma.
We have only been able to identify a few ALF/Nursing Facilities in Florida that will take registrants, but they are capped as to how many they can accept and none are currently accepting. We have also explored the possibility of helping to facilitate opening a facility for this specific purpose, but the concern is that once a compliant location is identified, the municipality will stick a school bus stop “too close” to it in an effort to close it off.
IF ANYONE is aware of any ALF/Skilled Nursing Facility that will accept a person on the registry, PLEASE contact [email protected].
I just [tried to] renew my Medicaid and SNAP in Florida and was denied because I have been convicted of a felony regarding the sexual abuse of a child. That was almost 20 years ago. I’ve been on disability and SSI and receiving Medicaid and SNAP for 10 years. My income, nor anything else about my living situation has changed. And being disabled I obviously need Medicaid (medical) insurance.
But I can find no law, statute, rule, or policy which allows for the disqualification from Medicaid for this reason. I’m appealing and hopeful to win but it is and huge hassle and in the mean time I have no insurance and have had to cancel numerous doctor appointments, therapy, and prescriptions and that will certainly have serious detrimental effects on my health.
My father, a 73 year old man who can barely walk to the door with out catching his breath is out on probation and REALLY need skilled help. I am incapable of taking care of him. I can’t even find a place for him to live. He needs help and no nursing home will take him. That is totally messed up. There needs to be a place where the elderly that are on the sex offender list can go to and get the care that they need.
Jennifer, we are about to launch a Call to Action to address this very issue with our 160 Florida legislators. It would be really good if you could share your story with our legislators. I have already shared mine as no one would take my family member either.
Keep watching this site for the Call to Action so that you can help in this endeavor of getting help for our population.
Hopefully we have your email address so that you can also receive an email when the Call to Action goes out. If you have not given FAC your email address (if you have one), I would urge you to contact [email protected] to be included in our mass emails that we send out.
I am just now seeing this thread- I am also looking for a facility that will accept a registered offender. I work in SNF as a SSD and I am struggling even with ALL the network connections s I have. I understand the SNF’s concerns as well- I have seen some very horrible actions from people in these places- so it’s a very valid concern for the facilities as well.
Stephanie, please see the reply that I sent to Jennifer. We need your story sent to our legislators, too. Most of them have no idea how bad things are getting. We are now in a crisis state when it comes to finding long-term health care facilities for our people.
I find it interesting the number of Admissions Directors of SNFs that are under the impression that it is “illegal” to take Sexual Offenders in the entire state of FL. I do realize that certain counties have passed this type of ordinance, but it seems to me that there could be some better communication to the public about this particular topic. The guidance from AHCA is not very clear, and the one pdf file I found related to this topic is dated 2010, so I was concerned about its relevance in 2022. We are trying to place 2 gentleman on the offenders list in long term care but have not had much luck.
Wendy
When my Grandmother who had alzheimer’s disease at the time, was trying to be placed in assisted living or a nursing home, my Mother had a hard time finding anyone to take her. A lot of these place prefer the “Perfect” resident that is healthy, sane and wealthy.
Even those with a non sex offense criminal record I heard have a hard time getting accepted into some facilities. I believe all of them now do background checks. If I had the money, I guess I could open one for only people with a past sex offense, but then someone would say that is discrimination. Wait, what? So they won’t let us in but we have to let others in if we had our own?
Love how the courts play chess with our lives. Justices are human just like us and put their pants on the same way as us. I do think some of think they are the King or Queen of England with their power to send someone off for a life sentence without blinking an eye.
I really need to find a nursing home for my elderly brother as soon as possible. He is 74 years old and also deaf (by birth). He is in very bad health and needs 24/7 care at a nursing facility.
Has anyone identified a nursing home in the State of Florida or any other state that will accept him with his past?
FAC should Debbie get in touch with Barb?
Debbie, please call our phone number and leave a voicemail for “outreach” or send an email to info@… and ask to be referred to outreach.
I just saw your reply. I will be reaching out to you shortly.
Thank you,
Debbie
Debbie G
I will keep your Brother in my prayers. When the Devil says no, God says YES.
“I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close.”
Revelation 3:8
Hi CherokeeJack,
I just saw your reply. Thank you for the prayers. We really appreciate it. We know that God has the answers and trust in Him to provide the best place for my brother and all others that have this need.
Debbie
I am in the same boat trying to find a place for my brother. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. I live out of state and it is difficult to manage this process from so far away without being familiar with any of the places. Any help would be appreciated.
Gretchen, call FAC’s phone number and leave a voicemail for “outreach” or send an email to info@… and ask to be referred to outreach.
Crime-free for 30 years, this registrant was CAUGHT LIVING IN HOUSING:
https://www.smdailyjournal.com/news/local/second-sex-offender-found-in-san-mateo-county-owned-senior-housing/article_9f4a299a-1a86-11ec-8bae-4345dbee7a8b.html
I want to move to Panama City Beach but cannot because my husband. had a sex offense from 1985 and was given probation. Stupidly when sex offense law was passed and he asked if he had to register. No one else did. Now he is on the list. They would have known if he had kept his mouth shut. No record. We have had nothing but trouble since. . He is 80 and needs to go to nursing home. We want to come to Florida because no family in MS. Son lives in Florida. No nursing home will take us.
Contact Barb Spragg of Justice Transitions who may be able to locate nursing home info (if I’m right, thank you, Barb!!!)
Wow. It is simply immoral to have a list of people who will be denied health care. That is ALL it is – immoral. No decent person supports it. Thank you for fighting the cretins who do.
The cretins are unable to face a very simple fact that it doesn’t matter AT ALL if a person who is in a nursing home or whatever has committed a $EX crime in the past or not. Any person in there could have and it is not known. Any person in there could. So we simply have to treat people who are not in prison as if they are not in prison. But the criminal regimes have created a liability and other big problems with their illegal Registries.
I like your “persons required to register” verbiage. But why don’t we make it more accurate and say “forced”? All movements have consistent, repeated branding, slogans, monikers, etc. Why don’t we get some for this movement and all the MILLIONS of us who care use them all the time? F.A.C. could get with ACSOL, NARSOL, Illinois Voices, Nebraskans Unafraid, etc. and agree on some. Then spread them so far and wide that most people in the country start to recognize them.
I propose “Person Forced to Register”. PFR and PFRs.
Case in point, all the homeless registrants that have no where else to go but live on the street and THEY CANNOT even do that. I think some of them will just give up and go back to jail Where the tax payers have to take care of them.
It is depressing for me at times when I always here: “everyone but sex offenders”. I do not understand how we live in a country that values education, yet there are so many people who do not care what research shows us.
The nursing home situation is particularly troubling to me with a husband who has a cognitive condition that is terminal.
But then I came across another ray of hope:
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/03/ypsilanti-adds-ex-offenders-as-protected-class-in-nondiscrimination-ordinance.html
I have always felt that the real change is only going to come through lawsuits. That is why I am so thankful to FAC. Maybe what is happening in the Michigan courts is having a trickle-down effect into some of the Michigan communities. And hopefully, we will some day see the fruition of all that FAC is doing in Florida for us.
In addition to no place to reside, when one is bed ridden a person cannot go ‘in person’ to register, nor when admitted to a hospital go ‘in person’ to change address nor to DMV ; and, if still on probation cannot go in monthly to for the review much less take a polygraph annually.
So both probation and registration violations are filled.
And this doesn’t even count the mandatory ‘therapy’ classes a probationer must take until completed or passed with a certificate.
My husband, 80 year old and still on probation, is post polio and has viral cardiomyopathy and pulmonary challenges. His doctor will not release him for a polygraph test and the polygrapher will not administer the test without a release. The judge ordered a VoP .
We are still awaiting a hearing.
What state gives polygraphs and when did that start? I was on probation for a long time and never once got asked to take a polygraph. I keep hearing people on here talk about that, when did that start?
They sure wasted a lot of time on drug testing though even though I never did drugs, was not charged for drugs and passed the pee test every time. I was willing to give some free pee though, I didn’t need it.
Florida
Husband picked up today on VoP for polygraph not taken. Now in jail awaiting transfer to Pol County. Stay tuned.
Muriel – please be in touch and let us know what’s going on. This is tragic
Muriel
I will keep your husband in my prayers that God would keep him safe, give him the strength and patience to get through this and that level heads would prevail and the judge would rule to restore him back to probation. Petty violations that do not harm any really suck.
Jack
It just goes to show that community notification IS punishment and retaliatory vengeance! Everyone on the registry is witch hunted all the way to hospice.
This organization seems far more concerned with playing reactionary damage control as a result of these feckless laws when it should be playing offense 100% of the time. It’s just gonna get worse as tracking technology becomes more affordable. They won’t stop until they have “real time” tracking of all offenders. The cops want to gloat about how they’re “protecting” the public from us.
Here are the three main definitions of punishment according to Oxford. Pay close attention to # 3
#1 the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offense
#2 the penalty inflicted
#3 rough treatment or handling inflicted on or suffered by a person or thing
Not sure how they are retro activing the building of something. I live within eye shot of a school and I didn’t have to move when they built it. I guess it may depend on your charges but even so, just like the ex post facto registry, I guess they can make up the rules as they go along.
They will block NEW people from moving in. ALF/Nursing Homes have high turnover. People die or recover, new people come in.
Better idea, we all pitch in to buy a HUGE parcel of land and build offenders period a place to live, like a big apartment complex. ONLY offenders could live there, and their families if they wish.
We would have a 24 hour security guard at the gate and they would have to call and verify you are expecting that person, other than say standard deliveries like UPS etc.
We could also have a second building on the property for the elderly offenders and there would be strict guidelines for any assistant who was a helper to make sure they elderly registrants were not mistreated.
You mean like a leper colony?
@FAC.
I think that was an inappropriate lash of sarcasm. That is NOT at all what he means and I think you know that. Since society, especially Florida does not want a registrant living in an ALF/Nursing home, it would be nice to have a place just for registrants to go unless/until they change their rules, and that would be much better than no place to go to at all.
I see your point but maintain that we should not be proposing to isolate our population into containment camps, but to propose solutions that enable re-integration into the communities.
On one hand we’re extremely grateful that City of Refuge/Miracle Village/Matthew 25 exists in the middle of corn fields in Pahokee, because most of these people would be on the streets otherwise. On the other hand, the concept of isolating a class of people in an outpost in the middle of nowhere, separated from the rest of society is a concept that we fight against. It’s essentially Ron Book’s solution; stick the population in the middle of the everglades, separated from society where they can’t have interaction with anyone.
The less we concede that a colony is a viable solution, the less likely it is to happen. If the disabled members of our population are relegated to an isolated building in the middle of nowhere, they might as well stay in prisons and get free healthcare.
I agree. Forced communes aren’t acceptable. Further, no one, and I mean no one, is going to force me to live somewhere that isn’t an extremely nice home. I have the money to live in nice places and I’m going to. No anti-American criminals are going to steal that quality of life from my family. I’m not sitting back and accepting any of their harassment.
One thing I do like though is that a Person Forced to Register (PFR) buys a decent amount of property, say 10 acres. They can then put their home on it and a few others. They can allow other PFRs to live in some of the homes and then have property caretakers/security to live in the others. The caretakers should be armed all the time. Enclose the entire property in fencing and deal with anyone who breaks in.
If anyone needs nursing, that can be added as needed.
As of now, there aren’t any places to re-integrate into, and what CherokeeJack is suggesting is that WE build it for us where WE want, not the government.
It would be our own and WE could admit or refuse anyone to our liking.
There are already senior citizens living communities with a gate and a guard with 24 hour security whose residents can come and go freely. So are senior citizens lepers in these communities because they live in an isolated section??? No.
CherokeeJack has a different concept. We do the choosing.
It would be no different than a gated community where elderly and others choose to live ( and pay big dollars to do that) and feel safe.
It would be ran by us, and therefore not a containment camp or a forced community.
Registrants would have a choice to go there or not.
It would be no different than any other free-choice gated community where seniors and others live.
David, I don’t think you read the post clearly. We wrote, “We have also explored the possibility of helping to facilitate opening a facility for this specific purpose, but the concern is that once a compliant location is identified, the municipality will stick a school bus stop “too close” to it in an effort to close it off.”
WE will open a facility and someone will stick a school bus stop or pocket park in front of it and nobody new will be able to come in.
Thank you David for coming to my defense. I meant well but seems some thought I was wasn’t.
Yes we should be able to live wherever we want but if we can’t I just thought it would be nice to build something JUST for us . There are some of those places already in central Florida where someone bought up every unit and now only rents to registered folks.
I was thinking of more of a retreat style living where every day we come home it fells like we are in a resort and are not judged from the outside World, if only for the time we are there.
No one would be forced to live there and anyone who does can move if they so choose to. I will have a long waiting list though and the first 100 applicants will get a free steak dinner on me.
Now all I have to do is win the lottery and I can start construction LOL
FAC. Ok, since it is illegal for a registrant to dwell “X” amount of feet near an existing or newly established bus stop or park, then by the same token it should be illegal for a city to place a bus stop or park near a registrant that is already occupying the area. In essence, if they place a bus stop or park near a registrant THEY are violating their own law and according to THEIR law THEY are endangering children.
To use the law as a means to bully somebody out of property ownership by violating them is a violation of the rule of law #2:
“Faithfulness to the rule of law allows us to live in a civil society in which everyone’s rights are respected; where each of us is guaranteed liberty and equality of opportunity.”
To use the law as a means to ‘force a violation’ is using the law to cause a violation of the law which it represents, which is using the law to break its own statute-using the law to create a violation which otherwise would not exist.
Laws are not made to force a violation, but rather prevent a violation.
What they are doing is not only illegal, but against the spirit and letter of why laws are written.
A good lawyer could argue this and win hands down.
It is not good that you are calling People Forced to Register “offenders”. They are not offenders. Only criminal regimes have Registries. The criminal regimes are the offenders.
I love your enthusiasm.
Will Allen
I meant to type registered citizens, my bad. I keep forgetting I have had this label on me for so long now they sort of brainwashed me. You are right, first and foremost we are human beings.
I should not have had to register but they made it retro active if you were still on probation or any sanctions at the time law enacted. So many are in the same sinking boat.
Love this idea. My 50 yr old son got out of prison in jan. He came down with M S while in prison and got no help. He is now bed/wheelchair bound. I am worried what happens to him when i die.
What we need is a donation for property that is large enough to cover the ruling, 1000 feet, 2500, 5million (sarcasm). And then work on opening this facility. Again, I would be willing to assist in helping get this going because these human beings need care, safety, and a comfortable place to pass peacefully without the ridiculousness of this law. I’ll see what research I can find in relation to the facilities that are available now.
Why can’t they be sued for not doing a background check on everyone then…why can’t the state be sued for creating a list that suggest sleeping with a girl a few years younger or sending a pic ect is worse than murder, burglary, home invasion, ect. ect..
Prior to the sex offense registry being implemented, how many people with sex crimes in their past were in such elderly facilities and no one ever knew it because they had nothing to “look up” a person on?
The issue that needs to be addressed here is: Where was the outrage about sexual offenses BEFORE Megan Kanka?
We are a society that somehow believes that sex offenses started with Megan. They didn’t.
If i get old enough which i am getting there more faster than normal from the stress that the registry is causing! and i am still on the registry at that time, and cant get into a facility, i already have a plan in place!. And if my family cant take care of me why would it really matter. I don’t really care to get to that point. If i could get off the registry after 20 years i might be needing a facility at about the same time, at the rate i am going right now!. But yea there should be a place for the registrants to go, i mean really its for old people to live out there last years…….
come on wake up your in Florida! the only place they want you is in prison and for proof look at when the hurricane’s come, either go to prison/jail or fend for yourself!!!