MIRAMAR, Fla. -- A convicted sex offender in Florida said the state is forcing him to live in a car under a bridge, but he wants a judge to let him move into a home near a school.

An old Nissan is where the state wants Lee Chang to spend his nights, parked under a bridge where he's constantly defending himself against mosquitoes and unscrupulous strangers.

"I don't really feel too safe sleeping around there, so I try to stay up as much as I can until I have to go," Chang said.

Chang, 25, was convicted in 2005 of molesting his stepsister and served two years in state prison. As a convicted sex offender, Chang is prohibited from living within 1,000 feet of a school.

His mother thought she rented a house in Miramar where he could legally live, but the state said otherwise. The house is just beyond the 1,000-foot limit -- but that's not including two canals and Florida's Turnpike.

Chang's attorney said the canals and turnpike shouldn't be included in the 1,000-foot limit because they're permanent barriers that can't reasonably be crossed.

"You cannot walk around the Florida turnpike," attorney Chris Mancini said. "You have to jump a fence (and) run across eight lanes of traffic."

Mancini wants a judge to increase the 1,000-foot limit for Chang by a couple hundred feet -- the distance of the water and lanes of travel.

The state claims its laws are designed to protect the public and prevent sex offenders from offending again.

Chang said he's paid his debt to society but feels like he's being taken for a ride by the state.

"Even though I'm locked inside my car, I'm still encaged, in a certain sense," Chang said.

Even if a judge rules in Chang's favor, that's only half the fight. The city of Miramar has its own ordinance prohibiting sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of a school, but an appeals court recently ruled that a similar ordinance in Jacksonville was unconstitutional.