More registered sex offenders to move from under bridge

MIAMI (WSVN) -- Some more of the registered sex offenders living under the Julia Tuttle Causeway may finally be moving out.

The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust said it has found an apartment that complies with county and state laws for four sex offenders living underneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway.

Ron Book, chairman of the Homeless Trust, said he hopes it is the beginning of proper shelter for all of these people. "We hope, within the next two or three days, to have some additional people placed and out of here," he said.

The ACLU has already filed a lawsuit challenging the city law, which put these people in the predicament they are in. The ordinance prohibits sex offenders from living within 2500 feet of where children congregate, including schools, daycare centers and parks.

"We're going to be working to very quickly, today and tomorrow, to try and identify some additional individuals to move," said Book, who, along with his organization has found home for more than a dozen non-offenders. Homeless men and women have been calling the embankment under the bridge home along with the sex offenders, who have finished their parole but have had trouble finding homes due to the ordinance.

Supposedly, some 43 other sex offenders remain under the bridge, but one of those who has been living under the bridge for three years and did not want to be identified, said there are more people who need to be re-located than most think. "They say that there is 43 people down here. There's not 43 people down here. There's more than 80," he said.

The banishment of these sex offenders has pulled on the heartstrings of people from across the nation. "This is a letter that came in a couple of days ago from a lady in Arkansas. She sent five 20 dollar bills," said Book. "She talks about them being human beings, and that they need to be treated as human beings and asked us to put this money to good use."

Meanwhile, two dueling lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts to shut down the shanty town, as the Homeless Trust continues to ask property owners willing to rent to this population to come forward.

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