Sex offender registry; person to designate location where spending night if no legal residence, etc. (HB912)
Introduced By
Del. Rob Bell (R-Charlottesville)
Progress
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Introduced |
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Passed Committee |
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Passed House |
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Passed Senate |
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Signed by Governor |
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Became Law |
Description
Definition of residence for the purposes of the sex offender registry. Provides that "residence" means, for any sex offender who declares himself homeless and has no permanent physical address, any single location described by him, which can be located with reasonable specificity, where he routinely spends the night. View Full Text »
Outcome
Bill Has Passed
View Bill's History
Comments
We called the Virginia State Police Sex Offender information phone number over a month ago and asked what the procedure was for a homeless RSO’s. They told us, “If a registrant becomes homeless they have 3 days to notify the Virginia State Police in person of a stationary location like a parking lot, street corner, motel or tent in the woods where they are staying". So why
would Delegate Bell file this bill?
We suggest that if the homeless bill passes ALL homeless RSO's in Virginia camp out in the parking space of their district's Delegate or Senator or even move onto their local VSP Barracks property and pitch a tent. Then the VSP will know their comings and goings. Remember some VSP Barracks are 1, 2 or 3 hours away from some RSO's homes/locations, so how is a homeless person suppose to be able to get to and from their homeless spot to a VSP Barracks when they have no transportation? If this is the direction Virginia wants to go in then they need to fund homeless shelters for Registered Sex Offenders across the state. Currently NO homeless shelter in Virginia will accept a RSO.
The need for HB912 is perplexing. One one level, it fails to understand the nature homelessness: When you're homeless, sleeping in the same place every night is a luxury.
Best guess: Rob Bell is planning ahead for widespread homelessness that will result should HB1004 get enacted as currently written. The fiscal impact analysis needs to take into account the additional State Police manpower that will be required to track the transitory realities of being homeless, and the public housing needed when these folks are separated from their families.
Kudos to Rob Bell for anticipating that a definition is needed--his challenge now is to craft something based in reality, and provide funding for the problems created when you use retroactively-applied laws to kick offenders out of their homes and support systems.