To the Editor:

This letter has a two-fold purpose that I wish to address that concerns a local landlord in Chocowinity and their actions that seem unfair and unjust to me. I am addressing this subject due to the fact that it, in my opinion continues to penalize sex offenders for their actions even after they have paid their debt to society by serving their prison sentence or probation whichever the case may be.

It has been brought to my attention that this landlord has refused to rent some of their residential units to individuals who have applied to rent from them. I know of one personally that they refused rent to, their reason of refusal was because these individuals would be having an individual residing with them that was a registered sex offender in Beaufort County. This decision by these landlords really doesn’t make much logical sense and doesn’t have any merit, especially when they already have a tenant residing in one of their rental units that is a registered sex offender in Beaufort County.

These landlords even make it a big issue when tenants that rent from them have individuals come to visit them that are registered sex offenders, saying they do not want them in the trailer park. What gives them the right to tell a tenant who can and cannot come to visit them? They say that they do not want sex offenders in the trailer park. Then if that is the case, why do they have one living in one of their rental units? We, as sex offenders, paid our debt to society and should not have to go through continual punishment by members of society now.

In conclusion, I say that we as sex offenders deserve a second chance at life just as anyone else does who made a mistake in life and that includes having a place to live — even if it means having to live with a family member and being able to visit family members in their homes without fear of being punished or penalized and risking our family members being punished or penalized. To the landlords of this residential facility: show that you care about mankind and treat us as you would want to be treated. We are still human and do have feelings.

 

Darryl Morse
Chocowinity