A registered sex offender located at a San Mateo County-owned homeless facility has Redwood Shores residents on high alert and questioning how officials could allow the placement to occur given the site’s proximity to a child care center.
“It will not blow over in Redwood Shores,” said a Redwood Shores Community Association board member who spoke on the assurance of anonymity. “We’re keeping a really, really, really close eye on what’s going on.”
The 70-year-old offender, listed as Sanchez Heriberto Martinez on the state’s Megan’s Law website, has been known under a series of aliases including Herbert Martinez and Herbert Martinez Sanchez. His last conviction was in 2000 for a subsequent felony but since his release in 2010 he’s been required to inform the public of his sex offender status after previously being convicted for the continual sexual abuse of a child.
Martinez now resides at Shores Landing, a senior housing facility in Redwood City purchased by the county through the state’s Project Homekey initiative. The program is aimed at helping homeless residents transition off the street and into safe housing and has brought more than $33 million into the county to facilitate the purchase of two hotels so far.
But Martinez’s placement has affirmed initial concerns raised by residents when the county was first seeking to purchase the site, formally the TownePlace Suites Hotel, the board member said. During multiple community meetings, residents implored the county to look elsewhere when searching for hotels to purchase, noting the hotel’s proximity to the Shores Child Development Center, distance from public transit and uncertainty of the backgrounds of future residents.
Disruptions have already been reported at the neighboring child care center since Martinez’s whereabouts were made public, the board member said. Center staff have increased their surveillance of the site and have informed the RSCA that the center has seen a recent dip in program participation, the board member said.
County officials said they are aware of the issue and are working with the neighborhood homeowners association and others “as we investigate the situation and possible resolutions.”
“We certainly take this seriously and it is a county priority,” county spokeswoman Michelle Durand said.
Redwood City Manager Melissa Stevenson Diaz said in an email statement the city was made aware of Martinez’s placement last week, prompting conversations with both the county and MidPen Housing.
“We understand residents’ concerns and have discussed this with the county. We understand that Mid-Peninsula Housing is exploring alternate placements and support those efforts,” Stevenson Diaz said.
Tommy McDonald, MidPen’s vice president of corporate communications and public affairs, said the county and organization both screened Martinez before his placement at the site. Because his offense occurred beyond the traditional seven-year screening period reviewed when conducting credit and criminal infractions, it did not come up.
“Nothing turned up in permissible background checks; therefore, the individual’s occupancy comports with the rule of California law,” McDonald said in an email. “We are empathetic to the community’s concerns and are working to resolve the situation equitably.”
Residents are eager to see a speedy solution but it’s still unlikely the county can legally force Martinez to relocate, the board member said, having had multiple conversations with both County Manager Mike Callagy, Housing Director Ray Hodges and MidPen Housing officials. Instead, Martinez may have to voluntarily move after being offered the placement at another site.
In addition to relocating Martinez, the board member said they’d like to see the county and agency implement a supplementary screening process that can prevent another sex offender from being placed at the site. They said county and MidPen legal teams are looking into the additional screening measure.
“I’m hoping that he realizes that somewhere else will be a better place for him to live,” the board member said. “Until people know that he is no longer living there things aren’t going to change.”
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(2) comments
Thanks, Sierra, for reporting on this story.
When the county announced its intention to purchase the TownPlace Suites Hotel in Redwood Shores, the Redwood Shores Community Association (RSCA) complained long and loud. It sounded like NIMBYism. It sounded like, "Can't the county find somewhere else to place the homeless?" I could be wrong, but it appears the county was confident that Project Homekey residents could be safely assigned to the Shores Landing facility located in the Shores Business Center zone on the eastern edge of the San Carlos airport.
No RSCA homes in the immediate vicinity.
However, Mid-Peninsula Housing's exercise of due diligence is now somewhat suspect. While there are no homes adjacent to the county's Redwood Shores homeless housing facility, the Shores Child Development Center is next door to the former hotel.
I'm going to make an assumption that any Mid-Peninsula staff members who may be required to work with children are checked through data bases that include public records linked to the state's Megan's Law website. If that's not the case, they may want to start doing so.
The question then remains... why wouldn't Mid-Peninsula and the county check the same public records data bases when placing a housing applicant in a facility located next door to a child care center?
According to a Mid-Peninsula spokesperson, both the county and the non-profit screened the applicant and "Nothing turned up in permissible background checks... " So, we're back to the question. Why wouldn't Mid-Pen check the Megan's Law website? Is this state maintained resource, available to the public, not part of a permissible background check?
I clicked on Mid-Pen's website < https://www.midpen-housing.org/ > and the first photo that pops up is a mother with two young children. The second photo to pop up is another mother with two young children. Is Mid-Pen placing mothers with small children in facilities with other residents who have not been checked through the Megan's Law website?
It looks like RSCA's concerns have been confirmed.
The 70-year old resident in question definitely needs state and county assistance to help him with his homelessness. Absolutely. However, his placement at Shores Landing next to a child care center needs to be corrected and the process for screening future placements in county funded facilities needs to be revised.
This shows extremely poor judgement on both Mid-Pen as an organization and the county leaders like Warren Slocum and David Canepa. Redwood Shores community has been misled and lied to about the type of residence Shores Landing will be; Mid-Pen lied about being a 'good neighbor' as they now house a child molester who continuously sexually abused a young child. Mid-Pen - what kind of terrible organization are you that you would place such a pervert next to a large childcare center than is less than a few feet away? Does this convicted molester have a view from his room of the childcare center's playgrounds too?
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