Suit Filed On Behalf Of Homeless Sex Offenders

MIAMI, FL – Attorneys representing dozens of registered sex offenders went to court Monday seeking to block Miami-Dade County from taking any action against a makeshift tent village near Hialeah. The encampment is located at NW 71st Street and NW 36th Avenue on an unincorporated swath of the county. Officials have threatened to take away temporary restrooms, hand-washing facilities and possibly arrest people found camping on the site.

"The lawsuit argues that a threat by Miami-Dade County to jail people beginning this week who have been forced to live in the encampment for years due to the county’s onerous residence restrictions for people with past sexual offenses is unlawful, contending that the individuals have nowhere else to go," according to attorneys from Legal Services of Greater Miami, Florida Justice Institute and the ACLU of Florida’s Greater Miami Chapter.

"Miami-Dade county has prohibited registered sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school, which in practice prohibits them from living in almost every residential unit in the county," the attorneys asserted. "The county’s restrictions go far beyond the state’s residence restrictions. In order to work and live, these individuals have resorted to living in tents or in their vehicles at this encampment in an industrial area of unincorporated Miami-Dade County that lies in one of the few areas of the county not excluded by the residence restriction."

In an email attached to the lawsuit, Miami-Dade County Deputy Mayor Maurice Kemp said that the county would not take action against the people living in the camp any earlier than Thursday.

"After May 6, 2018, Miami-Dade County plans to assess the individuals remaining at the encampment to determine their specific needs so that assistance can be provided," Kemp stated in the email.

"Furthermore, Miami-Dade County has consistently stated that any enforcement action will be carefully evaluated and utilized only as a last resort," Kemp added.

Attorneys for the inhabitants of the camp maintain that Miami-Dade police and other county officials have told the camp's inhabitants to make their way over to the intersection of Krome Avenue and SW 88th Street, which is more than a mile from the nearest bus stop, running water, electricity or restrooms.

It is also near the Florida Everglades.

“This encampment is obviously not an acceptable housing situation for anyone, but to further violate our client’s constitutional rights to solve a problem that the county created in the first place is cruel,” said Jeffrey Hearne with Legal Services of Greater Miami.

“Since the housing ban lasts for life, many of these people are elderly, infirm, or incapacitated,” added Valerie Jonas of the ACLU of Florida. “If the hundreds of individuals are banished to the border of the Everglades, they will be forced to live out their lives on the literal margins of society without any cover from the elements."

She said that the county created the problem by restricting areas "in which our clients can and cannot live, and the county can solve this problem now by repealing the residence restriction.”

The lawsuit seeks an emergency injunction, preventing the county from taking any action to close the encampment.

Deputy Mayor Maurice Kemp said that the county would not take action against the people living in the camp any earlier than Thursday. Photo courtesy Miami-Dade County.