TRI In The News
Waynesboro City Council to Vote on Letting Churches Shelter Homeless
From WHSV
Original article available here
Churches in Waynesboro are one step closer to being able to shelter the homeless in the winter.
The city council held a public hearing Monday night to get feedback on whether a law needs to be changed. The council accepted the resolution to actually vote on this at their next meeting.
Right now churches in Waynesboro cannot open their doors to the homeless for shelter without a permit through the city.
That's something that many people want to see changed.
Attorney Rita Dunaway spoke at the city council meeting to explain why this law needs to go.
"From the First Amendment to the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and also lots of case law that affirms the right for churches to do this," said Dunaway, a staff attorney at The Rutherford Institute.
Jerry Kestner also spoke up in favor of changing this law. He's the director of the Waynesboro Area Refuge Ministry or W.A.R.M.
His group has been working hard for months to have churches shelter the homeless in the winter. He says homelessness is a big problem in Waynesboro, and churches want to help.
"We have people that are just hanging out in the library all winter just to have a place to go," said Kestner. "I mean I know people who work at Walmart that tell me they found them sleeping on boxes out at the warehouse because they don't have anywhere to go."
Kestner says the change would allow for a rotating shelter, where churches would open their doors to people in need for two-week periods during the winter.
He says they tried this last winter with no problem.
Now that the city council accepted the resolution to vote on this change, people like Dunaway and Kestner are optimistic about what the city will do next.
"I have never been able to understand why the city would want to get in the way of people who are trying to help other people, so I'm very pleased with the development tonight," said Dunaway.
On the other side, some city folks say letting churches become homeless shelters for periods of time might cause more public disturbances.
The city council plans to vote on this issue at their meeting on July 23.
