All level two and three sex offenders have been removed from the Skyway Hotel homeless shelter in South Ozone Park, Councilman Ruben Wills reported last week. File photo
After years of battling the city to get rid of high-risk sex offenders living in a homeless shelter a stone’s throw from an elementary and middle school in South Ozone Park, Councilman Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica) said at last week’s Community Board 10 meeting the men with pasts that raised serious red flags for area residents have been moved from the facility.
Most recently, 39 level two and three sex offenders had been living at the Skyway Hotel homeless shelter at 132-20 South Conduit Ave. – two blocks from PS 124 – but were recently moved by the city to another location, Wills said. The move, which Wills attributed in part to a more receptive city administration, was met with numerous sighs of relief, from elected officials to civic leaders who have long worried about the ramifications of housing numerous registered sex offenders so close to a school.
“The numbers of sex offenders living there were so great it seemed like they were warehousing them in our community,” Wills said in an interview following last Thursday’s CB 10 meeting.
Among the level two and three sex offenders – meaning they are ranked as the most dangerous sex offenders in the state – were individuals who had been convicted of various serious crimes, including rape, and some had been ordered to not be allowed to interact with anyone under the age of 18 years old unless they were accompanied by an adult.
Wills and other area leaders, including CB 10 Chairwoman Betty Braton, stressed that the 106th Precinct, and its current commanding officer, Deputy Inspector Jeffrey Schiff, had done much to address a situation that began in 2010, when the city Department of Homeless Services turned the Skyway homeless facility from a shelter for families to a site for only single men.
“It’s been the work of the men and women of this precinct, under the leadership they have, that has prevented incidents from happening,” Braton said during the community board meeting. “… It’s been a serious problem, but it’s one they dealt with.”
Wills also noted that he has been working with state legislators to pass a bill that would mandate that sex offenders live at least 1,500 feet from such facilities as schools. Currently, they are permitted to be within 1,000 feet.
By Anna Gustafson
