TRI In The News
Churches at Odds with Waynesboro Over Sheltering Homeless
From NBC29
Original article available here
Several Waynesboro churches have a mission to provide the needy with food and clothing. But providing shelter has proven to be a greater challenge, one that has church leaders at odds with the city.
The Waynesboro Area Refuge Ministry (WARM) aims to set up a system of rotating homeless shelters. Waynesboro's zoning requires some churches to secure a permit and bars others from helping at all. Now a civil-liberties group in Charlottesville has warned the city that it may be keeping churches from exercising their faith.
For the frostiest months of the year, Waynesboro churches want to give their homeless neighbors a safer, warmer alternative to sleeping in the car, under bridges or in tents. The houses of worship would take turns opening their doors during the winter.
Howard Miller of WARM said, "We just totally saw what we were doing as the mission of the church, the ministries that any normal church would run and it never dawned on us that there would be zoning issues."
Waynesboro Assistant City Manager Jim Shaw stated, "Any place that people sleep overnight, there is transient lodging, there are standards of building codes, of fire codes to ensure the safety of those individuals."
Those codes also protect property owners from conflicting uses. Basic City United Methodist, in a residential area, needs a conditional-use permit to house the homeless in its social hall. But Main Street Methodist can't help at all, because it's in a commercial zone. Organizers of the shelter ministry don't see their work as a burden on neighbors.
Miller said, "It's temporary. It will literally be in a church for one week, then move to the next church."
The Waynesboro city code, approved just this past January, does not draw a distinction between permanent and temporary shelters or primary and accessory uses. The assistant city manager says that it was drawn up with federal guidelines in mind. But the Rutherford Institute says that it may violate a church's constitutional right to follow biblical mandates.
Miller stated, "A holistic faith literally cares for the spirit of a person, the emotional needs of a person and the physical needs of a person."
Shaw said, "Simply saying that because it's a church doesn't mean that zoning ordinance can't address the impact of those uses, either for the patrons of the building or for the surrounding neighborhood."
The first hurdle is a shelter permit for Basic City Church. It goes to Waynesboro City Council on Monday, and city staff recommends approval but it may require a change to the city code to allow many other interested churches to open their doors.
