An OUTRAGEOUS report from the Burbank City Council Meeting. Over a period of four nights, from January 9-12, an unscreened sex-offender was staying at the Winter Homeless Shelter at the Burbank Armory. The individual was only discovered after he registered with the Burbank Police Dept. and listed his address as that of the shelter. Shelter staff was immediately notified and the individual was move to another facility.

This verifies the serious concerns mentioned by neighbors in the Armory area before, and after, City Council approval of the Winter Shelter Program. In previous meetings, Shelter staff and Council members assured us that individuals were ‘screened’ before being allowed to stay in the shelter. No details were ever given about how the screening was done, only that ‘they are screened’. In fact, Lorena Garcia specifically asked how could they be screened without using fingerprints? The homeless person could simply not tell the staff his/her status and get through the ‘screening’ done by the shelter.

It has become clear that security is severely ineffective at the shelter and what I find most disturbing is that had shelter personnel simply asked this man, they probably could have found out his status immediately. Unlike the many sex offenders who do not register, and hide behind fraudulent social security numbers, this individual did the honest thing and registered with police as required by law.

More details will follow as I review notes and hopefully receive a summary/report of the incident.