By Julia Conley, Common Dreams, Used with Permission
Chris Avell, a pastor in Bryan, Ohio who opened his church to the city’s “vulnerable” residents to give them a place to stay amid freezing winter weather, is suing city officials over what he says is “discrimination” and “harassment” stemming from criminal charges he faced for providing housing for homeless people.
Avell filed a federal lawsuit on Monday against the city of Bryan, Mayor Carrie Schlade, Police Department Capt. Jamie Mendez, zoning official Andrew Waterson, and Fire Chief Doug Pool.
In court filings, Avell said he hosted an average of eight unhoused people per night at his church, Dad’s Place, “without incident” for several months before the city tried to stop him from keeping the facility open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
As Common Dreams reported last week, city officials told Avell he could no longer house people in the church because it lacked bedrooms and was zoned as a central business, in which Ohio prohibits residential use.
Authorities arrived at the church during a New Year’s Eve service and issued 18 zoning and fire code violations.
Despite Avell’s assertion that welcoming unhoused people into the church, which is located next to a homeless shelter that has experienced overcrowding, has not caused any disruptions in the community, Bryan city officials said in a new release that police saw an increase in reports of “inappropriate activity” at Dad’s Place in May 2023, two months after Avell first opened the church at all hours.
“It was city police officers who would bring people by,” Avell told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “The local hospital would call and bring people by. Other homeless shelters would call and bring people by.”
He told the outlet that two volunteers have acted as security guards since he began the overnight “Rest and Refresh in the Lord ministry,” and that the church has allowed anyone who needs shelter to stay overnight, only asking them to leave if “there is a biblically valid reason for doing so or if someone at the property poses a danger to himself or others.”
Avell’s lawsuit alleges that the city has moved the “goalposts” in its directives to him regarding safety and zoning codes. Officials ordered him to install a hood over the stove in the church’s kitchen, but after he complied, the city said the hood was not sufficient and required him to have the state inspect it.
“Nothing satisfies the city,” Jeremy Dys, Avell’s attorney, told the AP. “And worse—they go on a smear campaign of innuendo and half-truths.”
Avell accused the city of engaging in a “campaign to harass, intimidate, and shut down Dad’s Place” and said the order to stop housing homeless people was “directly contrary to its religious obligation.”
Represented by a conservative legal group called the First Liberty Institute, Avell alleged that the city has violated his rights under the First Amendment, the equal protection clause under the 14th Amendment, and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
The court filings included a request for a restraining order against the city as well as damages and attorneys’ fees.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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I read a news article regarding the city of Bryan’s response, and it does seem to be a campaign to rid the city of the nuisance church that dares to follow the words of Jesus and actually help people in their local community.
I particularly liked how how the city claimed that they actually spent their precious time to find another location that was for sale which would be perfect for,the church to use, and all the church had to do was acquire the property and get it rezoned.
Ummm…rezoned? So the city can’t give a zoning exception in the current location, next to a homeless shelter, but they can rezoned this other place? What, exactly, is different about this location that it is proper for a church run shelter?? Hmmm….I wonder.
I have yet to see Bryan offer any solution other than talk. This has been going on for months, homeless people, are still seeking shelter, and Bryan has made zero progress toward providing the shelter these people need.
Seriously, the fact that I am defending conservative Christians really shows how completely moronic the city’s stance is on this issue.
This may be the only case that I hope the despised First Liberty Institute wins in the name of religious freedom.
The hypocrisy of GOPers is strong (I am assuming Bryan, OH is highly GOP). They don’t want government providing a safety net, saying it should be in the hands of organizations and people to handle that. Ok, fine, a pastor and church step in to fill the void, but they’re told, “not here, not like that.”
Bryan, Ohio is a conservative Republican Christian town. So yes, it is MAGA. (I live here.) But the people who run the town are into their own power trips, so they can’t support a pastor doing pastoral things, like Jesus did (feed the hungry, house the homeless etc). 2/3rds of this town’s voters are hard-core GOP, and yet, not really so very Christ-like at all.
Well this is just a sad story. Sad but not untypical. The poor and the homeless are shunned and reviled in American Society. By believers and non – believers alike. (I am not “unaffected” by this judgemental reaction to poverty either).
Persons (myself included) need remind themselves that a large % of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and absent a couple of paychecks are an eviction notice away from the “streets”.
One of the few “breaks” I give the religous is the belief that soup lines and bed cots are and (should be) provided to the less fortunate by various church organizations.
Sadly, religous belief, as it comes to the poor, is not in lockstep with what churchs often represent.
Example: That paragon of rightousness (Joel Olsteen and his Evangelical Prosperity message).
I bring him up to remind folks that when Houston flooded out, that when people really needed help…….
They “bailed” and I’m not talking about the church basement. They bailed out on helping people in need and only backtracked when the public became aware of what a hypocritical organization that group is.
I have also noticed that Christianity, as practiced in the USA, is often a direct reflection of the economic “caste system” that exists here in the U.S.
Hemant Mehta over at The Friendly Atheist posted an opinion piece on this same topic. Hemant’s writing provides an even more detailed and nuanced view of what’s been going on.
See link: https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/an-ohio-pastor-was-punished-for-opening
Yep this information is out there for anyone to read and I read it all when I first saw this story. It doesn’t take long to Google ore details. . Still, it seems the city is pulling out all the stops to vilify and stop this church from doing what it is doing, but doing nothing on their own to solve the real problem of housing the homeless especially in critical situations.
The article you refer to is just holding the city blameless. But we must remember that if they have been chasing this church since November (or even earlier according to The Friendly Atheist) then they have had time to find other solutions the city itself can support or implement. Instead, they graciously helped the church by finding another location they could use, once it was acqjuired and once it was rezoned. I am sure the church can accomplish that in just a day or so…
Clearly the existing shelter cannot handle all of the need. This church steps in to help. Clearly there are improvements this church must make to do this properly and the church should do make those improvements. But it is also clear that the city is better at using words, and casting accusations, than solving the problem.
Wait….here is an idea. It’s radical and crazy. If the city truly wants to resolve this issue, why not help the existing shelter expand or…and this is the crazy part… have city own and maintained facilities that can handle the overflow or weather related needs?
Don’t let the city off the hook just because this church didn’t follow rules.
I wouldn’t call Hemant’s post “nuanced.” He doesn’t like First Liberty Institute and it colors his view of this story. I am able to separate my view of First Liberty and Avell’s religious beliefs and my view of his good works.
Hemant says Dad’s Place isn’t a church. He is wrong. Yes, there is an arcade in the front of the building, but the church meets in the back of the spacious facility — right next to the homeless shelter (which the city of Bryan plays no part). Religious services have been held there in the past — including a Christian youth ministry.
While I will not judge the motives of city officials, this has little to do with keeping people safe. If that’s the case, I can point to dozens of businesses and churches in Bryan that are in violation of zoning, building, health, fire codes.
I want to know who filed the original complaint. This will tell us all we need to know about this matter.
I belong to a liberal Christian church. I laud what this church is doing because I know the possible financial cost of housing these people could be high. Getting volunteers to cover every night could be difficult. These may be conservative Christians with whom I disagree on doctrine but they are certainly walking the walk of Christianity. May they be blessed for the good work they are doing!
This might be the first time since my days as an Evangelical Christian that I support a Christian’s claim of “religious freedom.” The thing is, he’s not engaging in Orwellian double speak (i.e., he’s not using “religious freedom” to impose his opinions on other people). Rather, he really is using his position as a religious person to do carry out a command that anyone with love in his or her heart can support: helping “the lesser of these.”
To me, people like him give Christian churches of whatever persuasion* the only moral authority they have.
*–I’m waiting for someone to say he’s not a “True Christian.”
This is horrific. I will never understand any society where persecuting the homeless, and those helping them, is deemed acceptable.
Good afternoon, Ben and everyone. I’m from the homeless capitol of America,Los Angeles,CA. And as someone who watched this county morph from an area where rents fir both houses and apartments were very cheap, and everywhere, making it possible to never have to sleep in your car or on the street,back in the sixties and seventies . Up until 1980, you’d see apartments being built all the time. But after 1980, they suddenly stopped getting built ! At the same time, the population growth shot up pretty fast,as lots of people were moving to this country, and having kids. But housing wasn’t built to keep up with all these people, in addition to U.S. born. Commercial buildings were built instead. I don’t know who gave the orders to do this( yet) but I bet the Powell Memo,from 1971 has something to do with this homeless crisis. As for what Bryan is doing there with Dad’s Place, it’s following the criminalization of homeless citizens,as a national trend ! I hear pundits who opposed affordable housing, and want homeless people imprisoned on the radio all the time. The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation,has filed a Friend of the Court Brief, to have Trump’s Supreme Court hear the Boise vs. Martin case. And they hope to have protections for homeless people,such as they are, revoked ! It’s ” politically correct” to pick on homeless people, because they are not a protected class, and both harmful and harmless homeless people are lumped together as criminals and addicts, when it’s basically the high rents that have caused homelessness. This crisis is about 43 years old now. My old neighborhood is a war zone. You hear gunfire almost nightly. Because of the gangs, but they aren’t homeless though !! Only a massive building campaign,to rebuild the housing stock back to levels before 1980, for the present population count, 340 million if I’m right, is the sole way to end this humanitarian crisis. That, and returning good jobs and manufacturing to the States. The criminal element, mentally ill, and addicts all need different kinds of help. Addicts need rehab, mentally ill people need residential facilities,if they can’t rent and pay bills, and we’ll, with predators, they belong in jail. The rest of the homeless population are seniors, disabled people, veterans and working class renters. Who can’t afford market rate rents. Lack of supply versus demand. So, there’s the summary of how and why homelessness exists. Look at Britain and Canada. They have the same thing.
Don’t know about LA but I nominate San Diego for homeless capitol. A basic apartment (if you find one) is $3000 a month. (not a misprint, three grand) Homeless in Bryan in winter or any time is not real pretty. How I’d know? Been there done that. Homeless, hungry, and no services 6 decades ago. I had an old car I slept in but food was a problem. A couple people recognized I was starving and too proud to seek help, they occasionally fed me. I quickly went from 180 to 135 so I suppose it was obvious. I finally got hired at GM and I got well quick on the good wages but so run down it took years to regain my health. I should have gotten out of Ohio as fast as a freight train could haul me to a warm place with a Salvation Army to feed me but I had no homeless skills. Homeless people in San Diego are a nuisance and a disgrace but they are smarter than I was, homeless in a cold place with no services. Bryan, now at least, has someone trying to help the needy but the town sounds as coldhearted as many decades ago when I was there. Homelessness and hunger are very educational and everyone should have a taste of it. It would cure a lot of hard heartedness. As for me, I’m leaving most of what I have to a homeless shelter.