New sex offender ordinance considered for city of Houston

(11/13/06 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- At least a third of the registered sex offenders in Houston live within 1,000 feet of places where children gather. But now a city council committee wants to restrict where sex offenders live, making that illegal.

We put our exclusive Crime Tracker to work and found a total of 3,606 registered sex offenders living in the city of Houston. More than 1,300 of them live within 1,000 feet of a church, 446 live within 1,000 feet of a bus stop, 355 within the same distance of a school and 253 live near a park. This is a proposal victim advocates have wanted for a long time.

Victims' advocates have been working on this for nearly a decade, but it's more complex than that. For example, the Airline House is a transitional program that has been around for six or seven years. But it is not a halfway house -- meaning it is not regulated by the state. That means the city has no control over who lives there. They would like that to change.

Even as Kerry Allen proudly shows off the private transitional housing program he runs, he knows this is just the type of facility that some on city council don't want. It's a place with a high concentration of parolees and registered sex offenders, directly across the street from a Boys and Girls Club.

Allen said, "We have probably around 16, 17, 18 parolees, somewhere around that area, and three sex offenders in different apartments. None of them are living together. There's one upstairs and two downstairs."

On Monday morning the public safety committee began discussions of crafting an ordinance that would keep registered sex offenders and some parolees from living where children gather.

"You don't have alcoholics living next to a liquor store and you certainly don't want to have five or six sex offenders living in a neighborhood with children," said Andy Kahan with the Mayor's Crime Victim's Office. "That's what I've seen when I monitor the facilities."

Kahan says he wants the ordinance to keep clusters of sex offenders from living in residential neighborhoods. Council member Ada Edwards says that might be difficult to enforce.

"Where do we stop?" she asked. "I don't think the city has enough money or resources to regulate where everybody lives."

As for Allen, he wants to invite Houston city council members to his facility and show it's not a haven for sexual predators. But he admits even if council passes the ordinance, he's not going out of business.

"If they make me get rid of all parolees, that's fine," Allen said. "I'm going to start working with drug addicts and alcoholics like we did when we originally opened this place. Nobody's going to get me to stop helping where help is needed."

It's important to note that this proposed ordinance is far from going into effect. This was just the first meeting. Council members are also considering a possibility that would limit the percentage of parolees who could actually live within apartment complexes.
(Copyright © 2006, KTRK-TV)

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