USA TODAY US Edition

Churches pay the price for helping homeless

Even as need grows, cities enforce zoning rules, legal barriers

- Claire Thornton

As rates of homelessne­ss in the U.S. grow, more churches across the country are coming under fire from law enforcemen­t for helping people get something to eat and a place to stay.

City officials say churches are violating zoning codes by providing food and shelter − roles Christian congregati­ons have filled for hundreds of years, pointing to the teachings of Jesus Christ and his followers.

Church leaders say they’re responding to the nation’s housing crisis, which in recent years has spiraled so far out of control that more than half of renters can no longer afford their monthly bill, researcher­s at Harvard University said last week. In 2023, the U.S. homeless population swelled to nearly 600,000, the greatest number since federal officials began their current method of tracking in 2007.

Religious leaders say they have more of a duty than ever to help lowincome Americans, just as their churches are facing more barriers from city officials. At the same time, law enforcemen­t agencies across the country are sweeping away tent encampment­s, telling unhoused people to seek shelter anywhere they can find it, including at churches and warming centers.

“You’re very much damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” said Eric Tars, legal director at the National Homelessne­ss Law Center, adding that helping those in need should trump any local zoning ordinance banning sleeping or eating in a particular building.

“Officials would have thrown the innkeeper in jail for offering his manger to Joseph and Mary because it wasn’t zoned for residency and didn’t meet the fire code,” he said.

This month in Ohio, a pastor filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Bryan in the state’s northwest corner after officials threatened to shut his church down for housing a handful of people in violation of zoning rules.

In Bryan, there are “two sides of the tracks,” pastor Chris Avell told USA TODAY, explaining how his church, Dad’s Place, sits at the intersecti­on of the east side of town, which is less developed, and the west side.

Avell was given a notice to appear in court on more than a dozen criminal charges including lacking a proper

kitchen and laundry facilities, having unsafe exits, and using improper ventilatio­n. The zoning ordinances say people cannot eat, sleep or wash their clothes in the church’s district, which is zoned for commercial use.

He pleaded not guilty and hired lawyers to file a federal lawsuit against the city, citing religious discrimina­tion.

“It is so fundamenta­l to what I believe the word of God teaches,” he said. “There’s a significan­t need. There’s a housing crisis in Bryan. It’s no secret, it’s just clear.”

Dad’s Place began operating 24/7 last March as a warming center for anyone in need − a model that’s not uncommon among churches across the nation.

“We need some more low-income housing, we need some more housing for people with disabiliti­es and other issues, we need more housing across the board,” Avell said.

His church is near a Medicaid clinic, a job training center and a separate homeless shelter, all services used by unhoused people.

Fire department officials had not inspected the church building for the past 30 years, said Avell’s lawyer Jeremy Dys, until it started operating as a place where people in need could find shelter.

Then the fire code violations started to come − and they haven’t stopped since, Dys said.

In recent months, officials have given the church contradict­ory guidance as they try to comply with fire codes, Dys said. Officials said first that the building’s two doors must always be unlocked. Later, they said crash bars must be installed, according to Dys.

Unhoused people are “constantly harassed by police,” Dys said.

“What the city is doing is trying to drive this population out of their sight,” Dys said. “So they have deployed these intimidati­ng tactics that unfortunat­ely the unhoused population only knows too well.”

Marc Fishel, a lawyer representi­ng the city of Bryan, said that officials are applying the law equally to all businesses, churches and homeless shelters downtown and that the city rejects claims its enforcemen­t of the fire code is anti-homeless.

Dad’s Place said that because it’s zoned as a church, it should be able to shelter people in need, but Fishel said the city believes it is not placing an undue burden on the church by trying to prevent people from sleeping there overnight.

Zoning, permit laws

City officials in recent years have cited zoning and permit violations at churches and other nonprofits across the country that feed or provide temporary shelter to people in poverty.

⬤ Last week in Arizona, leaders at AZ Hugs for the Houseless said the organizati­on has been banned from hosting its Sunday picnics in public parks for at least 12 months. City officials had allowed the picnics for years, then told the organizati­on to apply for the proper permit in November. The picnics continued in the meantime, according to The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network, but then the city denied the permit request this month, citing “repeated defiance.” In a statement this month, the city of Tempe said it “admires the compassion that goes into helping people who are unsheltere­d, but charitable food events must follow the same rules as other Tempe events open to the public.”

⬤ In Houston last year, a jury found a man not guilty of breaking local laws when he fed unhoused people outside. Phillip Picone went to trial for criminal citations he received in March 2023 after not moving his meal service to another location. After his trial, Pincone sued the city, arguing laws banning sharing food with people outdoors violate his freedom of expression and freedom of religion. The lawsuit asked for a temporary injunction against the city, which has yet to come. In the meantime, Pincone continues serving meals several days a week outside, his lawyer Randall Kallinen told USA TODAY.

⬤ Last year in California, church leaders sued the city of Santa Ana after officials threatened to fine them for feeding unhoused people, technicall­y violating zoning codes. “They figure, if you don’t provide food, then you won’t be an attraction to the poor and the homeless. And that’s why instead of cracking down on the poor and the homeless, they’re going after the homeless service providers themselves,” Ed Connor, an attorney representi­ng the church, Micah’s Way, told USA TODAY last year. Connor did not immediatel­y respond for comment this week.

⬤ In Brookings, Oregon, St. Timothy Church sued the city in January 2022 after officials enacted an ordinance making the church restrict its meal service to two days a week, down from about six − a move church leaders said prohibited the congregati­on from exercising its religious duty to serve the poor. “That’s a ministry of our church. We’re allowed to be a church, and you can’t tell us that we can’t practice our faith by feeding people,” Father Bernie Lindley told USA TODAY. A federal judge is set to hear the case on Feb. 15, he said.

⬤ After a church in Pottstown, Pennsylvan­ia, began operating as a warming shelter for unhoused people, borough officials issued a zoning violation in November 2022. Church leaders at Pottstown Beacon of Hope said the warming center was needed as a stopgap measure while building plans for its shelter were tied up in property title problems, The Mercury in Pottstown reported. The Beacon of Hope warming center is now rotating among four churches.

Laws serve a purpose

City zoning laws were designed to prevent land in the same area from being used for conflictin­g reasons, such as a factory being built right next to a neighborho­od, according to urban planning experts. Common zoning codes include residentia­l, commercial, industrial, institutio­nal or mixed-use, which is more commons in big cities and downtown areas.

The codes dictate what the land’s owner can and can’t do on the land, said Tom Daniels, a professor of urban planning at the University of Pennsylvan­ia.

“It’s not the classic ‘It’s my property and I can do what I want with it,’ because zoning is really the law that determines that,” Daniels said.

Debates over upzoning, when something zoned for fewer people and lower density gets zoned for more people and higher density, are increasing­ly common at city council meetings across the country, said Georgia Tech city planning professor Clio Andris. Homeowners and housing advocates typically clash over whether more affordable multi-family apartment buildings should be built in areas now zoned for traditiona­l singlefami­ly homes, she said.

Overall, the nation’s local zoning codes keep people safe and keep land use predictabl­e, said David A. Banks, a professor of geography and planning at the State University of New York at Albany.

When it comes to zoning code violations, city officials have a lot of discretion over how they enforce codes and are often “very reactionar­y,” Banks said, explaining how a long list of zoning code violations can be swiftly and easily levied against pretty much any building and its residents, especially if there are tensions in the community.

“Ideologica­l conflicts can use zoning as a tool in whatever fight is taking place, because zoning is an attempt to bring rational order to a very chaotic world,” Banks said. “These laws are so precise that at any one point you could go find you’re in violation of something.”

In the case of Dad’s Place, “one of the real questions the pastor is wrestling with is: Where do homeless people go?” Daniels said. “That’s a real challenge.”

“Officials would have thrown the innkeeper in jail for offering his manger to Joseph and Mary because it wasn’t zoned for residency and didn’t meet the fire code.”

Eric Tars

National Homelessne­ss Law Center

‘Fighting the good fight’

In Bryan, Ohio, officials in the town of less than 10,000 are “ill-equipped” to care for, counsel and spirituall­y support residents struggling with hardship and addiction, which is the role of Dad’s Place, Dys said.

“What Dad’s Place is doing is caring for that entire person,” Dys said. “They provide them a place of safety, whether they’re temporaril­y homeless or just need a place to crash while there’s some turmoil elsewhere. They can be safe in that place.”

As motels in Bryan remain booked with people seeking shelter and winter drags on, Avell and Dys said they expect to win their lawsuit, which hopes to keep the city from enforcing zoning codes “to burden the plaintiff ’s religious exercise.”

In the legal cases out of California and Oregon, the Department of Justice issued statements of interest arguing that distributi­ng food and drink to homeless and poor people is a “religious exercise” that could be a federally protected activity.

Dad’s Place can continue serving as a warming shelter until at least March 4, when the judge in the case will consider the church’s request for an injunction against the city.

Over the next month, Avell said he will keeping “fighting the good fight” and said he encourages churches across the nation that may be involved in similar zoning battles with local officials to do the same.

“Do not grow weary of doing good,” he said. “In due season you’ll reap the harvest if you don’t give up.”

 ?? PROVIDED BY THE FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE ?? Chris Avell, middle, with his lawyer, Jeremy Dys, is suing the city of Bryan, Ohio, after his church, which also operates as a warming center for the needy, was cited with criminal zoning infraction­s.
PROVIDED BY THE FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE Chris Avell, middle, with his lawyer, Jeremy Dys, is suing the city of Bryan, Ohio, after his church, which also operates as a warming center for the needy, was cited with criminal zoning infraction­s.
 ?? TREVOR HUGHES/USA TODAY ?? A woman waits in below-freezing temperatur­es Jan. 3 in Denver as authoritie­s clear out a migrant tent encampment.
TREVOR HUGHES/USA TODAY A woman waits in below-freezing temperatur­es Jan. 3 in Denver as authoritie­s clear out a migrant tent encampment.
 ?? PROVIDED BY THE FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE ?? Dad’s Place in Bryan, Ohio, says the city is harassing the church because it housed people in violation of zoning rules. The city says it applies the law equally to all businesses, churches and homeless shelters.
PROVIDED BY THE FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE Dad’s Place in Bryan, Ohio, says the city is harassing the church because it housed people in violation of zoning rules. The city says it applies the law equally to all businesses, churches and homeless shelters.

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