West Haven residents are complaining about St. Leonard’s house, a facility that provides transitional housing for ex-offenders. Residents claim that St. Leonard’s in the 2100 block of West Warren never notified the neighborhood that sex offenders live nearby. Earlier this year, a convicted rapist walked out of the center and allegedly raped two women in separate attacks on the North side. The residents persuaded Ald. Robert Fioretti to put a hold on the facility’s plans to buy two lots to expand its campus.
Atty. Martin Dolan of Dolan Law Offices in Chicago, lawyer for the two women Anderson allegedly raped, said that St. Leonard’s is incapable of handling a violent criminal like Anderson as evidenced by the fact that he walked out of the home and was missing for over 15 days and went unreported to anybody, including people in the community.
State law requires that sex offenders are not allowed to be housed within 500 feet of a school but The Chicago Public Schools’ Suder School is just across the street at 2022 W. Washington.
Fioretti’s office already arranged a meeting at City Hall where St. Leonard’s officials informed neighbors that they would stop taking in sex offenders.