08/09/2011
By Esteban Parra
New school ousts nearby safe house residents
For nearly three years, 52-year-old [name withheld] has lived on Wilmington's East Side, sharing quarters with men recently released from prison who have nowhere else to live.
[name withheld], a former teacher, also works out of the home as a case manager trying to find jobs and permanent housing for the former offenders.
But by next week, [name withheld] and the other registered sex offenders living at the Harriet Tubmans Safe House -- one of the few places in the state that takes in homeless registered sex offenders -- must move out. That's because of a learning center and preschool that recently opened less than 500 feet from the safe house.
- They should be grandfathered in, just like anything else. They were there first, so they should not be forced to leave.
"I understand the law, but there also should be like a pre-existing clause like in some other states," said [name withheld], who was convicted of two sexual offenses. "This program has been here first, and this program actually is respected by the community."
Under Delaware law, certain sex offenders are not permitted 500 feet from a school, even if the school opens after the registered sex offender began living there.
Harriet Tubmans Safe House, which consists of two homes less than a block away from each other, housed about 24 people at one time.
But since Wilmington police informed them of the coming evictions, 11 registered sex offenders have moved out. Five others remain there hoping a federal lawsuit will allow them to stay in at least one of the houses.
[name withheld] said they know they will not be able to stay at the house in the 900 block of E. Seventh St. because it is 365 feet from the learning center on the grounds of Old Swedes Church, which is leasing out the rooms. But they have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court asking to be allowed to stay at the second safe house in the 700 block of Buttonwood St., which is 493 feet from the school -- or seven feet short of the 500 feet the law mandates.
"These people got nowhere to go," said Earl W. Woodlen Jr., owner of both homes and CEO of Tubmans Safe House. Woodlen, a convicted drug dealer, said he purchased the homes to help former offenders enter society.
