Suffolk lawmakers back mini-shelters for sex offenders

A Suffolk legislative committee voted Thursday to back a contractor's plan for a network of mini-shelters for homeless sex offenders that will permit the closing of trailers in Southampton after years of protest.

The health and human services committee voted 5-0, with Legis. John Kennedy (R-Nesconset) abstaining, to move the Community Housing Innovations (CHI) proposal before the full legislature for a vote Tuesday in Riverhead. Community Housing Innovations is a contractor that operates emergency housing shelters for the county.

The resolution, if approved, would end a six-month impasse among lawmakers. The contractor's final plan would be based on an earlier legislative directive to set up a network of mini-shelters housing no more than six offenders each. The shelters are to be located in industrial areas, and no town or legislative district will have more than one. The shelters would also have 24-hour-a-day supervision and counseling. Officials have not specified how many shelters will be built.

Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) until now has maintained that Social Services officials should implement the shelter plan without further legislative action. But he relented when Legis. Edward Romaine (R-Center Moriches) filed a new resolution to endorse CHI's plan to break the logjam.

"Let's just pass [it] and put the ball in their court," said an exasperated Lindsay, who blamed the department for not moving forward. "It's going on six months and you have not moved the ball one inch."

However, Social Services Commissioner Gregory Blass said the contractor did not want to move forward unless the Legislature endorsed the final plan because it included new elements including a community board with the power to shut down a shelter.

The committee also effectively killed a competing proposal of County Executive Steve Levy to reinstitute the voucher system, which backers say has been used without incident in Nassau, Westchester and many upstate counties. Under that system, homeless sex offenders are given a daily stipend and left to find shelter on their own. A Levy spokesman said the county executive is expected to veto the new resolution, meaning the plan needs 12 votes to guarantee an override.

The committee vote came after Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter called for legislative action on either proposal to end the use of trailers in the parking lot of the county jail and open county property in Westhampton. On Tuesday, the trailers were at capacity, with 26 homeless offenders, officials said.

Walter said he preferred the voucher system as more politically palatable and said he would lobby against the mini-shelters because he expects that community opposition will delay site selection and closing of trailers. Even if the county put a shelter at the old Grumman site, he said, "You'd have people come out of the woodwork to block it."

Riverhead Assessor Mason Haas said he believes the mini-shelters were a fairer approach, but added, "We need a way to come to closure, because this is a 4-year-old issue."