Restrictions regarding housing for sex offenders

Skip to content. About , sex offenders are registered throughout the United States. Community notification has increased awareness about the locations of sex criminals, resulting in the enactment of laws restricting where convicted sex offenders can live. Such policies are designed to diminish the risk posed to children by repeat sexual predators by decreasing access and opportunity. At least thirty states have passed laws preventing registered sex offenders from residing within a specified distance of schools, parks, day care centers, school bus stops, or other places commonly frequented by children. This article explores the impact of such laws, highlighting the increase in homelessness among sex offenders, who have difficulty finding compliant housing.

Decent, stable, and affordable rental housing has the power to improve lives , yet background checks and other systemic barriers reduce housing access and stability for a large part of the population—people who have been arrested or who are reentering communities after incarceration. The number of people who can be shut out of rental housing by criminal background checks and related policies calls for a national and local conversation about evidence-based ways to balance public safety and cohesion goals while supporting people with justice system histories in finding stable housing. Achieving this balance could interrupt cycles of inequity. Each year, millions of people are released from US jails and prisons and will return home or find a new place to live.

Residency restrictions for sex offenders has become a point of critique in state courts as more and more lawsuits are filed against the state. Residency restrictions limit the place a sex offender is allowed to inhabit. Sex offenders find that in smalls cities they are obligated to live outside of residency areas.

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