SAN ANTONIO – Tracking sex offenders can be a tough job but it's even harder when those offenders are homeless.
The case of 22-year-old David Flores is a prime example of what police are up against.
Flores was sentenced to 4 years for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.
When he was released from jail, Flores listed Haven for Hope as his address.
When Flores failed to make a mandatory 30 day check in, officers with SAPD's Sex Offender Registration Detail learned he hadn't been to the shelter in weeks.
"If they're not where they're supposed to be then we take the necessary actions, as far as possibly serving a warrant or getting more information on them on why they didn't check in when they were supposed to," said SAPD Officer Douglas Greene. "Every 30 days he needs to check in with us, if he's going to change the geographical location he has to let us know 7 days before he moves."
Flores was eventually located, picked up and charged for failing to comply with his sex offender registration requirements.
According to the state's official sex offender registry, Flores was one of 238 sex offenders living in the 78207 zip code, 52 of them list Haven for Hope as their address.
"We accept sex offenders if they're homeless and that is the main reason we exist, to provide services to those people who are homeless," said Laura Calderon, Director of external relations for Haven for Hope. "This is a place for them to come, otherwise they would be out in the streets in your neighborhood."
Calderon said the shelter does not turn away homeless sex offenders but they only have limited access to certain areas of the campus.
Sex offenders are allowed to stay at the shelter's outdoor courtyard but they do not have access to the transformational campus where single women and families with children are housed and receive services.
The shelter employees a number of procedures and policies to keep the sex offenders separate from single women and children.
Courtyard residents have distinct name tags and can not gain access to the rest of the campus.
"All of the doors from one area to another are electronically controlled and so someone from the transformational center can not enter the courtyard and vise versa," Calderon said.
"We have our life safety officers, which are the equivalent of police officers, they monitor the courtyard 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to make sure nothing happens that isn't supposed to be happening," Calderon said.
As an extra precaution men and women sleep in separate areas of the courtyard at night.
The shelter also maintains a close relationship with local law enforcement.
"Our campus is open anytime to the law enforcement entities to come and look for people they may be on the look out for. Sometimes they share mug shots with us other times they give us names if they don't have pictures," Calderon said.
"Parole officers will also come through here and look for their clients. So if a parole officer knows that their client is a sex offender, they may come here looking for them to make sure this is their address instead of having an apartment somewhere else in the city."
No matter where sex offenders are living, officers are keeping tabs to make sure they're following the law.
"This is exactly what their main job is, to monitor these sex offenders, so they are constantly checking the locations, checking in with them. We're not waiting for them to check in with us. We'll go at a certain time and check on them and see if they're where they're supposed to be," Greene said. "We take this situation of sex offenders very seriously."