TRI In The News
Waynesboro Council Votes to Allow Churches to Make Shelters
From WHSV
Original article available here
For the past two years members of the Waynesboro Area Refuge Ministry have been trying to make progress on not needing to fill out a permit for every shelter.
On Tuesday, they finally won the battle, with only the most minor of compromises.
"We worked out the compromise with the city planning commission so it went down to two weeks out of the year," said WARM treasurer Bob Carroll. "That alleviated a lot of problems with the zoning. They were worried about zoning and who was going to take care of whether there was a problem with the neighbors and that type of thing."
The plan is to have ten churches throughout Waynesboro and Augusta County acting as shelters. Tuesday's vote allows each of those churches to rotate for two weeks at a time without the need for a permit. There was some concern that city council was going to side with the planning commission, so an attorney had been called in to explain the law.
"Letting the city know that we are paying attention to what's going on can have an effect," said Rita Dunaway, staff attorney for the Rutherford Institute. "I hope that the City Council members just realized that this was the right thing to do. These churches have the right to care for the needy."
Council member Frank Lucente addressed members of WARM after the vote, saying he supports their efforts. He also let them know that council can change their minds if things start to get out of hand.
"We'll do our part," said Pastor Howard Miller of Waynesboro Mennonite Church. "There are things that are out of our control. We'll have to make decisions as situations arise."
Because of the nature of the shelters, it would be hard to weed out problems before they happen.
Miller says they know that they need to be on their toes, but their main goal is to provide a comfortable night for someone in need.
"We call ourselves a shelter of last resort," he said. "We don't ask questions. We don't try to sort out why a person is homeless. We're simply saying, on a cold night, you have a bed tonight."
The first shelter this winter is expected to be open the week of Thanksgiving at Fishersville United Methodist Church.
