MARIETTA, Ga. -- A group of sex offenders who were camped out in Marietta have been ordered to leave by Tuesday afternoon.

Authorities said nine convicted sex offenders have been living in tents at the end of Kennestone Circle, behind a building owned by the Georgia Department of Transportation . But GDOT doesn’t want the sex offenders as tenants.

The men had set up tents, beds, cooking areas and makeshift showers about 50 yards into the woods, near Cobb Parkway.

On Monday, the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office told the men they had to move by 5 p.m. Tuesday. But the men said they have nowhere else to go. A woman who did not want to be identified, lived at the campsite with a man who is a convicted sex offender. The woman told CBS Atlanta that her friend had camped out in the woods for more than a month.

“It’s unfair,” she said of the forced removal. “This land isn’t being used. They’re not bothering GDOT or anybody else here.”

The woman did not know what her friend or any of the other men will do.

“The boys here are without hope,” she said.

The sex offenders had been staying in the tents because, they said, they couldn’t find any place else to live. Georgia’s tough sex offender laws ban them from living near children.

The Department of Corrections acknowledged that probation officers told the men to move into the woods.

"We are not required to locate suitable housing," a spokesperson said. "We do try to find them housing at faith-based organizations, lodges or other approved locations. That was an absolute last resort because they had no place else to go.”

Nekeya Holloway, a sales representative who was at the office park to give a presentation at a doctor’s office, said GDOT or the Department of Corrections should help the men find another place to live.

“My heart goes out to them,” Holloway said. They did commit crimes, but they deserve second chances."

GDOT did not return CBS Atlanta's calls for this story.