Полиция Форт-Лодердейла очистила парковку от сексуальных преступников, но проблема жилья для них остается нерешенной

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Fort Lauderdale police have cleared a parking lot where Local 10 News previously found registered sex offenders and sexual predators staying under probation supervision. One person was arrested and others were given trespass warnings during the recent police operation at a shopping center in the 2400 block of North Federal Highway. But while the parking lot is now cleared, the underlying problem remains. Where are people subject to Florida’s strict sex offender residency restrictions supposed to go when they have nowhere else they can legally stay? That question is at the center of a complicated conflict between local police and property owners and the state supervision system. Local 10 first investigated the parking lot in June after discovering registered sex offenders and sexual predators who had been released from prison and were under supervision staying there. The location had been approved by the Florida Department of Corrections as a place where some of those individuals could stay when they had no other approved housing option. During the recent police sweep, an officer told one man sitting in a vehicle, “If you are not patronizing a business you cannot be on this property.” In another encounter, an officer said police had observed a man sitting in his vehicle for an extended period and determined that he was a registered transient sexual predator. The man was issued a trespass warning. In another encounter, officers ordered a man out of a vehicle and discovered he had an outstanding warrant. He was arrested. The parking lot was cleared. But the property owner did not want the men staying there, and Fort Lauderdale police did not want them on the property. At the same time, the Florida Department of Corrections had approved the location for people under its supervision. That conflict illustrates the larger problem. Florida law restricts certain people convicted of specified sex offenses involving victims younger than 16 from living within 1,000 feet of schools, child care facilities, parks and playgrounds. A new state law also adds public swimming pools and public bathing places to the list for certain offenders and circumstances. The new swimming pool restrictions took effect July 1, 2026, and apply according to the offense and supervision circumstances outlined in the law. The restrictions prohibit certain people from living within 1,000 feet of a public swimming pool, further reducing the number of locations that may qualify as legal residences. Local governments can impose additional restrictions. In South Florida, those restrictions can include areas around school bus stops and, in some cases, bus benches. For people with serious residency restrictions, finding an address that satisfies every requirement can become extremely difficult. That is how a parking lot can become a place to stay. Jeff Feldman, a former federal probation supervisory officer who now works as a consultant, has seen the problem from the supervision side. “It’s the norm for transient sex offenders,” Feldman said. “They have nowhere to live and we have nowhere to put them.” Feldman said the problem has been developing for decades. “This has been going on since 1997,” he said. “It’s evolved into all of these legislative changes that restrict residency.” Feldman said people who have been released from prison can find themselves with few legal housing options. “They say, ‘Well, I can’t go home. Where can I go?’ Well, your options are limited,” he said. That creates a difficult question for probation officers and the communities where these individuals end up. Vanessa Fernandez, a licensed mental health counselor who treats people convicted of sex offenses, is vice president and clinical director of the Clinical and Forensic Institute. Fernandez said unstable housing can interfere with treatment intended to reduce the risk of reoffending. “Instead we’re working on basic life things, like where are you going to shower? How are you going to eat? Where can you keep food?” Fernandez said. She said the constant struggle to find somewhere to sleep can take attention away from treatment. “Unfortunately what it really does is that it doesn’t keep anybody safer,” Fernandez said. “The community’s not safer.” Feldman made a similar argument from the perspective of supervision. “As a probation officer, I would rather them live where I know they’re living, where I can come check on them, as opposed to go sleep in the parking lot and I have no idea where you are,” he said. That is the central paradox exposed by the parking lot. Local police can remove people from private property when they are not wanted there. Property owners can object to people staying on their property. But removing people from one location does not eliminate the residency restrictions that helped create the housing problem in the first place. And Feldman said the problem is not limited to Fort Lauderdale. “In Miami Dade, it’s just as bad,” he said. The Florida Action Committee, an advocacy organization that supports changes to Florida’s sex offender laws, has been pushing the issue for years. Teresa Bond of the organization said officials have long been aware of the housing problem. “They’ve known about it,” Bond said. The organization also argues that the restrictions do not necessarily improve public safety. “We have actually tried to even provide empirical data telling them that this is not public safety,” a Florida Action Committee representative said. The group has now taken its argument to federal court. In a lawsuit filed this week, the Florida Action Committee challenges Florida’s sex offender residency and other restrictions, arguing that the laws are unconstitutional and can contribute to homelessness and transient living. The lawsuit cites state data that the group says shows as many as 34 percent of registered sex offenders in Miami Dade and Broward counties are homeless or transient. That figure is an allegation and claim contained in the lawsuit, rather than an independent Local 10 analysis of the underlying data. Local 10 News repeatedly contacted the governor’s office and the Florida Department of Corrections for comment and asked what the state intends to do about the housing problem and the conflict over approved locations. Neither provided a response. The people Local 10 found staying in the North Federal Highway parking lot are no longer there. But that does not necessarily mean they have found permanent housing. Fernandez said moving people from one location does not necessarily solve the underlying problem. “That doesn’t mean they’re just in a different area doing the very same thing,” she said. There is no simple answer. Feldman believes one possible starting point would be changing some of the restrictions that have progressively narrowed the places where people under supervision can live. “The solution is to roll back some of this restrictive legislation,” he said. Fernandez also said changes to state laws and statutes would ultimately be necessary. But changing those laws is politically difficult because the people affected are registered sex offenders and sexual predators. “No one wants to look soft on these types of issues or inconsiderate of the severity of these actions,” Fernandez said. That leaves local police with a problem they can address one parking lot at a time, while the larger housing problem remains. The parking lot Local 10 investigated has been cleared. The people who were staying there have been moved. But the residency restrictions remain, the state has not offered an answer about where people with no other legal housing options are supposed to go, and there is no easy solution to the conflict between public safety, local property rights and the state’s system of supervising people who have been released from prison. One of the men Local 10 spoke with, Ivan Jones, described what he believed his options had become. “Sleep outside,” Jones said. “Make the best of it. That’s what they told me.” At another point, he said, “I might as well go back to prison because I’m not going to do this.” “I’m not going to stay out here,” he said. Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.