By Madina Toure
Assemblyman Edward Braunstein (D-Bayside) and state Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn) are calling for a statewide ban on sex offenders living near schools.
The bill, if signed into law, would prevent level one, level two and level three sex offenders in New York state from living within 1,000 feet of a school. Braunstein said it was one of the first bills he introduced in 2011 when he was first elected and that it was carried by his predecessor, Ann-Margaret Carrozza.
“We looked at our legislation and we thought it was an excellent idea to protect students and give parents a peace of mind while their kids are in school to require that people who have been convicted of a sex offense are not allowed to live within a close proximity of a school,” Braunstein said in an interview with TimesLedger.
The New York State Court of Appeals struck down a Nassau County regulation Feb. 17 banning sex offenders from residing within 1,000 feet of a school, ruling that state law on sex offenders overrules all local regulations, affecting more than 100 local laws.
“There’s a little bit more importance than I think in the past,” he said. “It could have been argued, ‘OK look, if a locality wants to pass this legislation, let them do it themselves,’ but now that that’s been invalidated, there’s more an emphasis on a need for a state law.”
The announcement comes just as a new investigative report found that four known sex offenders were staying in homeless family shelters in Queens and that nearly a dozen sex offenders live in family shelters throughout the city.
The report said there are sex offenders living at Lincoln Atlantic at 90-35 Van Wyck Expressway, Belt Park Family Center at 153-90 Rockaway Blvd. and Park Family Residence at 154-00 Rockaway Blvd.
And in mid-February, protesters called for the closure of the homeless families shelter at the Westway Motel in East Elmhurst, even after the Department of Homeless Services announced that no Level 2 or 3 sex offender would be placed in shelters housing families with children.
The protests stemmed from the fact that James Bryant, 49, a convicted felon, a Level 2 sex offender, was moved from a shelter in the Bronx to the Westway Motel, where DHS has been housing 121 families since July.
He was moved out of the Westway Feb. 6 after his presence in the shelter provoked outrage among Astoria and East Elmhurst residents.
