SHARE, an organization that provides shelter for people who are homeless, has refused Our Redeemer Lutheran Church's request to run sex offender checks on its residents, but a shelter at Calvary Lutheran Church is still a possibility.

Rebecca Butler, spokesperson for Our Redeemer, said the church asked SHARE to check new residents against a paper list of level three sex offenders, but the organization refused.

According to an April 3 notice of decision from the City of Redmond, SHARE has agreed to background warrant and sex offender checks for Tent City 4 in Redmond.

The notice reads: "Tent City 4 shall obtain warrant and sex offender checks from the appropriate agency for all new prospective encampment residents. Tent City 4 shall report any positive results of sex offenders or warrant checks to the Redmond Police Department."

Steven Fischer, principal planner the City of Redmond, said SHARE offered to run those checks for all tent cities on the eastside. They first offered in 2007 and offered again this year.

Plans announced by Our Redeemer in February to host a 20-person nighttime shelter in the vacant Calvary Lutheran Church building at 7002 23rd Ave. N.W. caused an outcry among some neighbors.

The shelter was delayed while Our Redeemer and SHARE met with concerned neighbors. One of the demands of the neighbors was that SHARE residents be checked against sex offender databases.

SHARE residents themselves screen prospective residents downtown before allowing them to the shelter area, but they do not research sexual offender history or warrants.

“We try to find out as much as we can about the people we have to sleep with every night,” one shelter resident said at a February community meeting.

Despite the refusal, Butler said the shelter is still a work in progress.

"We're still hoping we might be able to host a shelter," she said.

The SHARE shelter that would have moved to Ballard is currently housed at the West Seattle Church of the Nazarene.