MIAMI -- The controversy over a shantytown under the Julia Tuttle Causeway is growing more heated as an increasing number of paroled sex offenders are moving in, barred from living elsewhere by housing restrictions.

Officials in both Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami pointed fingers at the state Tuesday, blaming state officials for the growing problem.

"That population is growing largely because the Department of Corrections continues to approve people to live under the bridge. That, ladies and gentlemen, is just fundamentally wrong," said Ron Book of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust.

The tent city is growing in a location that happens to be outside an overlapping patchwork of 2,500-foot buffer zones that South Florida’s cities and municipalities drew to keep sex offenders away from children. The shantytown is in the City of Miami. But sex offenders are technically under state control.

Miami City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff insisted the state has a de facto policy of putting the offenders under the bridge.

“The probation and parole officers are sent there at 5 o’clock every morning to check on them. The State of Florida issues drivers licenses with addresses under the bridge,” Sarnoff said.

Miami City Manager Peter Hernandez wrote a cease-and-desist letter to Gov. Charlie Crist earlier this month. A response arrived on Friday, essentially saying the shantytown is Miami's problem.

The Governor’s tone was much different two weeks ago, when he told Local 10’s Glenna Milberg he advocated working together to make sure public health and safety were protected.

City of Miami commissioners are considering a lawsuit against state that would allow courts to decide what lawmakers will not.

"When you have that many people, whether they be sexual offenders or laborers, confined in such a small area, sooner or later something is going to happen," Hernandez said.