AN EMERGENCY shelter run by St Paul’s By-the-Sea, Ocean City, Maryland, in the United States, is being ordered to close by 8 June. The Episcopal church moved its courtyard tent operation indoors on 31 March, to comply with a new law issued by Worcester County, which made sleeping on public property illegal. The church was threatened with a daily $5000 fine (News, 27 March).
There is a scarcity of permanent emergency shelters in the town, where the population swells by hundreds of thousands in the tourist season. While the two shelters that do operate ask for background checks, the “low-barrier sheltering” offered by St Paul’s does not require from users identification, sobriety, employment, or being on some kind of programme.
It works closely with community agencies, averages 27 guests per night, and, over 42 nights, has enabled 892 individuals to sleep safely. “Our shelter operates as a ministry of the church rooted in the gospel call to care for the ‘least of these’,” the Rector, the Revd Jill Williams, said.
“We will not turn our homeless neighbours out on to the street. This is not simply a zoning story. It is a story about faith, public policy, homelessness, and whether communities are willing to make room for vulnerable people who have nowhere else to go.”
The church could legally have allowed people seeking shelter to sleep in the courtyard without the tents: something that, it believed, would have exposed sleepers not only to the elements, but also the public, resulting in a loss of dignity, privacy, and safety.
The new zoning violation follows an inspection by the Ocean City Fire Marshal’s Office, on 29 April, which pronounced the sleeping arrangements to be “barracks-style”, which was prohibited. “We are exempt from complying with that, because we are federally protected by the Religious Land Use and Institutionalised Persons Act,” Ms Williams said. The violation charge also declares the number of plumbing fixtures inadequate.
Asked in an interview with the webite Anglican Watch what the city’s response to the shelter had been, she said: “The city has told us they want the town to look like Disneyland, and they do not share our goal of addressing the need for providing safe shelter.”
The church’s lawyers responded last week that the shelter had no intention of ceasing operations.