Sex Offenders Make Up Large Share of Homeless Population, New Report Shows
Municipalities should adopt a more assertive approach to street homelessness.
Most Americans understand the link between homelessness and crime. But activists and academics reject the connection, insisting that the homeless pose no elevated crime threat. A new report from the Cicero Institute complicates their argument, revealing that a large share of the nation’s homeless population is composed of registered sex offenders.
The report, covering 41 states, compared counts of sex offenders listed as “homeless” or “address unknown” on state registries with the federal Point-in-Time Count database to determine what proportion of a state’s homeless population appears on its sex-offender registry.
The results are alarming. Sex offenders account for more than 20 percent of the unsheltered homeless population in 20 states, and more than 10 percent in 32 states. In eight states—Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Nebraska, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin—more than 50 percent of the unsheltered homeless population is on the sex-offender registry.
Stay Informed
Sign up to receive updates about our fight for policies at the state level that restore liberty through transparency and accountability in American governance.