A CHURCH in the United States which was threatened with a fine of $5000 (£3700) a day for allowing homeless people to sleep in tents on its property is to offer an indoor shelter instead.
The congregation at St Paul’s By-the-Sea, in Ocean City, Maryland, has been told that the church’s reserves will be used to open its shelter by 1 May in response to “our belief that the Church is called not only to preach compassion, but practise it”, the Rector, the Revd Jill Williams, said.
The church is one of only two historic buildings in the centre of Ocean City, which has many hotels. The beach city attracts about eight million visitors each year.
St Paul’s has been offering a safe place to sleep outside its doors, in a courtyard area, for around a dozen people to sleep in tents. There are two homeless shelters in the area, but both ask for background checks or other requirements that some of those made homeless and using St Paul’s don’t meet.
Last year, the city and surrounding county adopted new laws making it illegal for people to sleep in public places. City authorities had ordered the church to remove the tents by last Monday or face a $5,000 a day fine, but the church has now negotiated an extension to 1 April, to allow it to create an indoor shelter.
Ms Williams said: “The most important thing is that people who need a place to stay had a little bit of safety, a little bit of dignity, by having these tents. We could keep them outside on property without the tents, which is perfectly legal, but that would have meant they were exposed to not only the elements but the public, and they would have lost their dignity and privacy and little bit of safety they had. We had to ask ourselves, what is God asking us to do? The number-one concern is that we protect our people. So we will create this shelter, and it will be up and running by April 1.”
The church is using up its reserves to create the shelter and will have to hire staff. It also offers an outreach ministry that serves hot food and runs a community pantry. Many who use these services are summer workers in the tourism industry, who don’t earn enough to meet their needs, the church says.
Ms Williams said that the church’s leaders had decided to “put our resources where our faith calls us . . . trusting that God will provide as we move forward”.
Thanking the congregation for their support, she wrote: “We ask for your continued grace and patience as we navigate the challenges that come with responding faithfully to a complicated community issue. Thank you for being a congregation that seeks to live the Gospel not only in word, but in action.”
It has yet to receive any wider support from the Episcopal Church for its ministry to the homeless and is accepting donations via: stpaulsbythesea.org
