Suffolk agency searches for sex offender housing

Suffolk Social Services began Wednesday to search for housing sites to place homeless sex offenders, but County Executive Steve Levy warned lawmakers "are living within fantasyland" if they think new housing can be ready soon.

Levy made the assessment the day after the county legislature overrode his veto of a resolution to end the voucher program and to prepare a plan within 30 days to spread the housing of the Suffolk's 25 to 30 homeless sex offenders more fairly across the county.

The bill, sponsored by Presiding Officer William Lindsay, would require the department to create a network of small shelters housing six homeless offenders with no more than one shelter in any town or legislative district.

While the voucher system was put in place earlier this year, only four homeless sex offenders are using $90-a-night vouchers to find their own housing, while 22 are in trailers outside the county jail in Riverhead and on county property in Westhampton.

Legis. Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk) filed a bill giving the department until Oct. 15 to implement a new housing initiative. And State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Whelan Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the county from hooking up a trailer with showers in Westhampton as earlier mandated by a state hearing officer.

Department officials say they are reaching out to the nonprofit contractors who now run shelters for the county's 180 homeless people, to gauge their interest in housing for homeless sex offenders.

But Levy warned that the legislature's action to discontinue vouchers could create "a crisis because homeless sex offenders may be roaming the streets." He also said the legislature Wednesday passed a "pandering bill" requiring motels to put up signs at front desks if they house homeless sex offenders. He said Lindsay's plan is unrealistic because community opposition and lawsuits will likely occur at any site selected.

Lindsay said that his plan is "far more rational" because no shelter will overload any community, each will be required to be out of residential areas, and have 24-hour supervision and counseling services. "They say vouchers worked elsewhere, but I don't want the first time they don't to be in any of my neighborhoods," he said.

Earlier this year, Levy ordered the county to go to a voucher system like Nassau's and many upstate counties', after an effort to move offenders from trailers used for the past three years to a Babylon industrial park caused an outcry from 1,000 at a local hearing.

The voucher system has been stymied because lawmakers refused to give Social Services any increase in petty cash to pay the $90-a-night stipend for offenders to find their own housing. As a result, most homeless sex offenders remain housed in trailers despite local complaints.