Hundreds of homeless sex offenders expected as city ordinances pose problems

Milwaukee looks for answers to helping sex offenders re-acclimate.

It started earlier this month when Mayor Tom Barrett blasted the state's plan allowing a convicted sex offender to move in with his cousin. The residence is just across the street from Allen-Field elementary.

Instead, that man, Luis Martinez, is now homeless and that has brought about a whole new set of issues.

More than 300 plus sex offenders who will roam Milwaukee streets by summer, Richard Rosa's brother is one of them.

“He'll come out strong wanting to fight and do it the right way and then once he gets a few lumps on his head, he's gonna fall,\" Rosa said.

Ordinances in Milwaukee County municipalities and the city are so strict many aren't approved a parole residence, leaving them homeless.

The mayor, Alderman Michael Murphy, the Department of Correction, and police representatives met with the community today in part to say they are in over their heads.

More than 50 parolees are assigned to each officer, competing city ordinances lump sex offenders into concentrated spots, and some offenders are going rogue altogether. Now leaders are pressuring the state to respond.

\"If anybody in particular in leadership positions says these are unintended consequences when all of us saw it coming, you have to wonder, why didn't we do anything?\" Mayor Tom Barrett said.

Alderman Michael Murphy added, \"We need better answers and that's why it's a statewide concern and we need to see some leadership on that issue.\"

That includes help from the governor; both the D.O.C and state police say they are doing everything within their capacity to remedy the issue.