By Tom McCardle, representing a number of Ballard neighbors, including members of the Calvary Interim Housing Task Force

By now, most neighbors of the vacant Calvary Lutheran building, located at 7002 23rd Ave. N.W., know that a Level III (most likely to re-offend) sex offender stayed at the SHARE shelter located on the property for 24 days before he was discovered by a neighbor checking the King County sex offender registry.

He was convicted of rape of a child in the third degree in 2005 and has been in jail numerous times since then. In fact, the sex offender had been released from jail only three days before he was admitted to the shelter.

He has since been removed. There is currently a temporary ban on admitting new residents to the shelter.

According to SHARE regulations, sex offenders are not allowed in shelters located in residential neighborhoods, and the group believes it is capable of screening out sex offenders through a process that includes no sex offender or ID checks.

Neighbors have maintained all along that Our Redeemer's Lutheran Church, the owner of the vacant Calvary building, must be held accountable for the actions of its tenant (SHARE). This includes putting in place verifiable sex offender background checks by checking current and potential shelter residents against the King County sex offender registry.

“It’s baffling to me that commonsense background checks are not put in place immediately,” said Sheila, who lives close to the shelter. “I believe Our Redeemer's is doing a great disservice to the children, daycare facilities and schools located in this neighborhood. Why are our concerns not taken seriously?”

To clarify neighborhood sentiment, a survey was conducted in the immediate neighborhood and a whopping 96 percent of some 80 respondents wanted sex offender background checks to be conducted at the very least.

Only 4 percent felt that SHARE and Our Redeemer's could be trusted to correct the screening procedures without insisting on the checks.

Fifty one percent said they no longer trusted SHARE and Our Redeemer's to operate a safe shelter and wanted it to be shut down.

As a follow up to the survey, 146 neighbors within a two to three block radius of the shelter signed a petition requesting Our Redeemer's to do the following: Conduct verifiable sex offender background checks OR close the shelter.

The survey and the petition signatures were delivered to Our Redeemer's on Oct. 1. Yet, in interviews with the media, Our Redeemer's has questioned the validity of the survey and petition results.

At a shelter task force meeting on Oct. 1, church representatives even ridiculed the neighbor and shelter task force member who presented the results.

“I was frankly dumbfounded at the sarcasm and disrespect that ensued as I presented neighborhood feedback,” said Laura McCormick. “We made a great effort to gather, compile and present the data fairly. I was disappointed that, despite the overwhelming response, the church continued to imply that the results were flawed and did not truly represent neighborhood views.”

Neighbors have asked Our Redeemer's to provide a YES or a NO answer to the request to conduct verifiable sex offender background checks. The requested Oct. 11 deadline for a reply by Our Redeemer's has long passed with a vague promise to have a decision by the end of this month.

Even though the Seattle City Council is vowing to stay on the sidelines, council member Tim Burgess, Health and Human Services chair, said during a July 27 community meeting at the Ballard Library that he thought it was reasonable to expect shelter sponsors, such as Our Redeemer's, and shelter organizers, such as SHARE, to conduct sex offender background checks on potential shelter residents in residential neighborhoods.

While the city council has declined to step in and help resolve the dispute, council member Burgess’ statement certainly provides an irrefutable "hint" that background checks are indeed appropriate and reasonable.

“What’s the big deal about submitting to a background check?” asked neighbor Jim Tomlinson. “Most people applying for a new job are required to submit to background and credit checks and answer questions about whether they have been convicted of a felony. Sex offender checks are free, instantaneous and take two minutes to do. What’s so hard about this?”

Shelters receive tax payer funding. Therefore we should expect shelter residents to comply with some minimum requirements for the privilege of staying in a neighborhood facility.

Neighbors understand and appreciate that churches have the right to build community and extend their mission to the poor and disenfranchised as they see fit. However, when that mission puts the neighbors at risk by introducing Level III sex offenders to the area, some minimum safeguards need to be put in place.

We ask that those safeguards, in the form of verifiable sex offender background checks, be put in place now and that any sex offenders discovered through this process be barred from staying at the shelter.