Homelessness Among People on Delaware's Sex Offender Registry

CCRS research assistant Alex Modeas and I released a policy brief on Monday in which we look at homelessness among people on Delaware’s SOR.

People on SORs are modern-day lepers as they are near universally shunned in community settings. The stigma attached to sex offenses makes it difficult to find housing and employment, and legal restrictions on where they can live (must be certain distances from parks, schools, and other places in many jurisdictions) ensures that they are at particular risk for homelessness. We find that, in Delaware, 4.6 percent of those on the SOR are homeless on the night that we looked at, a rate that compares with a rate of well under 1 percent for the general population.

The brief provides more detail about homelessness among this group. We find, for example, substantial geographic concentrations (almost three-quarters of those in Delaware on the SOR and experiencing homelessness are located in nine zip codes); relatively high levels of employment (40% employed in some capacity); and only 12% with repeat offenses. If such findings pique your interest, check out the brief.

We also riff in some detail on the irony of having such complete data available from the SOR when more conventional data on homelessness in Delaware is far less complete and comprehensive. The SOR affords very little privacy, so personal information such as name and DOB, and detailed information about individual homeless circumstances readily available online. Individuals must report at least monthly to the Delaware State Police while homeless, in contrast to most others who are inclined to keep their homelessness as private as they can.

So in pursuing this latent function to publicly shame, the SOR yields an island of intense visibility amidst the sea of invisibility that is unsheltered homelessness more generally in Delaware. Ironically, the most shameful revelation that comes from this little study is how little is known about Delaware’s unsheltered homeless population and how, judging from the SOR, vastly undercounted and underserved unsheltered homelessness in Delaware is.