New legal action may be coming if the Fresno City Council follows through on a ordinance restricting sex offender housing.

On Thursday, in a 6-0 vote, councilmembers directed the city attorney to craft an ordinance that requires licensing for commercial group homes and restricts the number of those homes to one per council district.

With more than 1,300 sex offenders registered in the city, and the ordinance potentially allowing no more than 42 units, “all it takes is a little arithmetic,” said Janice Bellucci, a Sacramento  attorney who advocates for the rights of sex offenders.

For many registrants required to live within the city, that could mean homelessness, Bellucci said.

“There’s right now almost 1,400 people on the registry living in the city of Fresno and it’s possible that it could reduce that number to 42 that are living under a roof,” Bellucci said. “It’s not going to limit the number of people who actually reside there because there are people, for example, who are on parole that have to be living in the city of Fresno.”

Bellucci, a member of the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws, said her group would sue the city if it passes an ordinance limiting housing. The alliance sued Fresno County in January for a rule limiting the number of sex offender residents in a single home.

City Needs to Act in Response to Decriminalization: Karbassi

Not every registrant lives in a group home, as many live in hotels, with family, or other housing, Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi, who sponsored the resolution, told GV Wire.

Karbassi, however, didn’t know how many group homes exist or how many sex offenders live in a commercial group home setting.

“How do we know how many we have if we don’t have a registry?” Karbassi said.

On Oct. 13, Karbassi first announced the SHIELD Act — Sex Offender Housing, Inspection, Enforcement, Licensing, and Disclosure — alongside city and county law enforcement, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, City Attorney Andrew Janz, and Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp.

Karbassi talked about how the city of Fresno, because of its affordability, had become a “cottage industry” for commercial group homes, popping up without regulations.

He told GV Wire the city needs the ordinance in response to state laws relaxing parole requirements for sex offenders. Two notorious sex offenders — David Allen Funston and Gregory Vogelsang — were both eligible for early release recently and both requested moving to Fresno.

Vogelsang was denied parole and new charges brought against Funston by district attorneys prevented his release.

“I cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that we live in a state which is decriminalizing everything, including violent sexual predatory behavior,” Karbassi said.

Reoffense Rate for Parolees Low

Bellucci said state law preempts local restrictions on housing for sex offenders. She says there’s good reason for that. The sex offender registry contains a broad variety of offenses with violent sex offenders representing only a small portion Bellucci said.

Most recent annual data from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation show that most sex offender registrants (79.3%) do not reoffend in the three-year monitoring period after release.

A small portion of those offenses are sex crimes.

Of the 1,922 individuals released in the 2020-21 year through the Sex Offender Management Program, 2.4% were convicted of sex offenses in the three-year monitoring period.

Bellucci said old data from the federal government shows a 5% recidivism rate over the lifetime of an offender.

For many on the registry, rehabilitation works, Bellucci said, and limiting housing keeps parolees from stable housing. Cases such as Funston’s are extreme cases, she said.

Many clients of hers deal with alcoholism or drug abuse that fuel sex crimes. One client, an alcoholic, has been sober for 40 years and has not reoffended, she said. After 44 years, he was allowed off the registry.

“I talk to people on the registry every day, the fact is that they think prison was probably the best thing that ever happened to them because it gave them a chance to become sober,” Bellucci said.

Do Victims’ Rights Conflict With Perpetrator Housing?

Many at the council meeting, including Karbassi, disputed that any sex offender can rehabilitate. Both Karbassi and Councilmember Annalisa Perea said that victims need to be considered.

“What a privilege you have to be rehabilitated but think about those you hurt, they’re not rehabilitated,” Perea said. “So while some people want to pat themselves on the back, and I commend you, I’m sure people have done work to rehabilitate themselves, but we don’t talk often enough about victims.”

Opponents of the rule, however, say at the very least, the consequence of an ordinance limiting housing is putting sex offenders on the street.

Roger Hunnicutt, a registrant and on the board of the alliance, said at the Thursday meeting, the result is a decrease in public safety.

“To be productive members of society, registrants need stable housing, stable lives, and ask yourself which would make yourself feel more secure — knowing where registrants live or having them wander the streets homeless and hopeless,” Hunnicutt said.