Unrealistic restrictions have made it impossible for hundreds of paroled sex offenders to find legal places to live, and homelessness has soared.

Before voters approved the initiative, 88 registered sex offenders on parole were homeless. Today, 2,100 sex offender parolees are considered homeless.

A report by the Sex Offender Supervision and GPS Task Force stated the obvious: “Homeless sex offenders put the public at risk.” This is no soft-on-crime panel. Composed of police chiefs, victims’ advocates, and parole and probation officers, the task force found that homeless parolees were more unstable and therefore more likely to duck supervision and re-offend.

Homelessness makes GPS tracking, another key feature of Jessica’s law, more expensive and more difficult to carry out. Because these homeless parolees sleep at different places each night, parole agents spend hours investigating to ensure they are not in high- risk areas.

The task force wants a return to residency restrictions in place before Jessica’s law: no closer than a half-mile from schools only. The problems with Jessica’s law stem from the shorter distance — 2,000 feet is a little more than a third of a mile — and the inclusion of parks, which effectively render entire cities off limits to some offenders.

Other recommendations include greater coordination between law enforcement agents, better assessment of parolees’ actual risk, lower caseloads for parole agents and centralized GPS monitoring.

But the report sidesteps a key issue. After sex offenders are released from parole, GPS monitoring, which is supposed to last a lifetime, ends for most. Budget-strapped police and sheriff’s departments can’t afford to take on this task.

Jessica’s law needs fixing. The overly restrictive residency rule is just one of its problems.