Gilroy City Council recently and unanimously endorsed state
Assembly Bill 438, thus earning the ire of my co-columnist Dina
Campeau.
Gilroy City Council recently and unanimously endorsed state Assembly Bill 438, thus earning the ire of my co-columnist Dina Campeau.
AB 438 has two provisions. It requires the Megan’s Law data base to be made more specific, so that it indicates what a registered sex offender did to earn his status, whether child molestation, forcible rape, or the relatively innocuous and rare case where an 18-year-old is convicted of statutory rape for consensual sex with a 17-year-old. Ms. Campeau approves of this provision, as do I.
The second provision is that AB 438 would allow landlords to evict or to refuse to rent to registered sex offenders, and would allow landlords to disclose to current or prospective tenants that a registered sex offender lives in the apartment. Currently the law forbids landlords from doing any of these things. Ms. Campeau disapproves of this provision.
Her logic chain proceeds as follows: AB 438 allows landlords to deny housing to registered sex offenders. Therefore landlords will deny housing to registered sex offenders, because of what she terms the no-housing clause. Therefore sex offenders will be homeless. Therefore (her thesis sentence) Americans are stupid about sex.
I do not see how any of that follows from the first point.
Our law forbids a landlord from denying housing to a tenant or prospective tenant because of race, creed, or color. I think that adding registered sex offenders to that list is a gross insult to people of color and to members of racial or religious groups. As a matter of fact, if one wants to discuss instances where Americans have been stupid, our current law lumping child molesters in with African-Americans is about as stupid as it gets.
AB 438 does not require landlords to deny housing or inform tenants. It merely allows them to do so. There is no legal obligation.
But in my opinion, a landlord of an apartment complex which houses children is morally obligated to refuse to rent to a convicted child molester. The landlord should not be prohibited by law, as he is currently, from doing the right thing.
And I think that the landlord of a complex where women live is morally obligated to tell his tenants, “Hey, there is a paroled rapist in the building. He has paid his debt to society, and is repentant, and is trying to live a good life, but use the deadbolt, okay?” He should not have to break the law to do the right thing.
Ms. Campeau assumes that all landlords will refuse housing to registered sex offenders. I am not so sure. They will not be required to by law. I believe most people would have compassion on the so-called sex offender whose only crime was a stat rape committed in his youth. And if a house or an apartment were vacant a long time, would a landlord not be tempted to rent regardless of a tenant’s priors?
She further assumes that the only alternative to renting is homelessness, which rather ignores the whole phenomenon of home ownership.
Ms. Campeau and I have many points of agreement. We both agree that rape and child molestation are incredibly destructive to the victims. Even after they heal from the physical trauma, the emotional and mental damage continues.
We both agree that the rate of repeat offenses is high, and that the possibility of repentance and redemption exists. We also agree that we, as a society, have no clue how to treat or rehabilitate rapists and child molesters. She thinks we should spend more money to solve it. I am not sure that any amount of money is going to help. In the meantime, we both favor longer prison terms and stricter parole requirements.
But Ms. Campeau is a champion of social justice, and in particular an advocate on issues of homelessness. So I think the suggestion that someone might become homeless merely because he had a history of child molestation sent her over the edge.
Personally, I favor truth and justice, rather than social justice. And I do not think truth or justice is served by forbidding landlords to deny housing to registered sex offenders.
