Church sues town in bid to shelter homeless in trailers

By Colleen Slevin

The Associated Press

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — Behind a church surrounded by rolling prairie on the outskirts of this Colorado town sits a donated RV that Joe Ridenour called home for a year after he lost his job during the pandemic.

Being able to live in the RV, he said, allowed him to avoid returning to his native Kansas City, where he was afraid of backsliding into use of methamphetamine again.

“Without this trailer and this church, I wouldn’t be alive,” said Ridenour, who now has a maintenance job at the county fairgrounds and rents a room from a friend he met at The Rock church. “The drug use would have consumed me.”

Last year, the town of Castle Rock ordered the nondenominational evangelical church to stop violating zoning regulations by providing shelter in the RV and another camping trailer. The church responded by suing the town, which is between Denver and Colorado Springs.

Echoing arguments made by other churches trying to serve the homeless from Oregon to Ohio, the Colorado church argues that helping people in need is a religious activity protected by the Constitution. Its lawsuit is studded with references to the Bible’s exhortations to the faithful to take care of people. It also notes that surrounding Douglas County, one of the richest in the United States, has no other shelters for the homeless.

The church’s property is not zoned for residential use and regulations forbid anyone from living in an RV anywhere in Castle Rock.

On July 19, a federal judge ruled the church can continue to shelter the homeless in the campers temporarily while the lawsuit plays out.

The town, which has said it will “rigorously defend the zoning authority of communities,” declined to comment on the ruling. In court, the town has argued the church could find other ways to help the homeless, like opening members’ homes to them or buying property zoned for residential use and housing them there.

Earlier this year, the church had to turn down a request to let a mother and three children under the age of 7 who had been living in a car staying in one of the trailers, pastor Mike Polhemus said.

“The word of God actually commands us to love those that are struggling and poor and to shelter them,” Polhemus said. “That is our mandate. And we believe that actually goes above the county or city codes or whatever codes there are, that these are things that are mandated by God.”

Nearly a decade ago, the church began sheltering homeless women and children in its gym one night per week as part of a church network that took turns opening their doors to them. In 2018 the church began allowing homeless men (following interviews and background checks) to stay in the trailers. The church network stopped its outreach to homeless families last year, and The Rock was only able to shelter to people in the trailers.

After the July 19 ruling, Jeremy Dys, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute, which is representing the church, said, “I’m sure they will welcome people back into the RVs as soon as possible.”

The lawsuit is based on both the church’s religious freedom under the First Amendment and a federal law intended to protect places of worship from being discriminated against in zoning decisions.

The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, passed with bipartisan support by Congress in 2000, bars governments from imposing land use regulations that put a substantial burden on religious exercise without a compelling reason for doing so. It has helped a wide range of faiths build or expand places of worship but has also been invoked in legal fights over efforts to help the homeless.

Before The Rock filed its lawsuit, a church in Bryan, Ohio, filed a similar federal one this year when its pastor was criminally charged for allowing homeless people to shelter there. The church and city officials are trying to negotiate a resolution to the lawsuit, which also alleges the city violated the 2000 federal law.

Two other recent lawsuits also alleged a violation of that law.

In March, a federal judge ruled the city of Brookings, Oregon, could not limit a church’s homeless meal services. St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church’s lawsuit brought an ordinance limiting the program to two days a week and requiring a permit also violated its right to freely practice religion.

Last year, a Christian nonprofit in Santa Ana, California, was penalized and threatened with charges for feeding homeless people. The group settled its lawsuit against the city after the Justice Department weighed in.

Lauren Langer, a Los Angeles attorney who represents cities in land use cases, said lawsuits pitting houses of worship against municipalities over care for homeless people come up periodically but they can be costly and drag on.

“Even if the church wins, it’s a long road to get there,” she said.

Some California communities and churches have taken a different approach — forming partnerships to set up places where people living in vehicles can park overnight while providing services like restrooms, trash pickup and security, she said.

Sonia Moran, who lives with her husband and two sons in a home bordering the Castle Rock church’s property, wasn’t initially concerned when she learned it was providing shelter to the homeless in the trailer. But that changed after the church proposed building affordable housing on its 54-acre property.

She doesn’t believe the housing would really be for teachers and first responders, as the church says, and fears the development would bring in residents who could increase crime in her quiet, safe neighborhood.

“How are we supposed to trust them when they can’t even follow their current zoning and obligations to the land use right now?” said Moran, who also thinks the church may be trying to profit from the project.

Polhemus denies that. The former civil engineer who worked in real estate development in Houston before taking over from his father as the church’s pastor said providing workforce housing isn’t a kind of profitable project.

Moran also said she doesn’t believe Castle Rock has a homelessness problem and the church should focus on a place that does, like Denver. The county, for its part, has donated $1.1 million toward building a shelter 30 miles away in Aurora, where at least five homeless people from the county can stay.

Before Ridenour moved into the church’s RV, he had been sleeping in his truck at a Target parking lot, staying in motels or with a friend temporarily. He said he lost his job in June 2020 after his truck broke down while he was on his way to Denver.

The church put the experienced carpenter to work building woodwork in its foyer. The money Ridenour earned helped him pay off debts and buy clothes for job interviews, he said, and made him feel like he was contributing to the community.

“They showed me my worth, which I had lost,” he said.

Now that Ridenour is feeling stronger, he’s preparing to move back to Kansas City.

“God has made this a journey for me to be back with my family and back with my kids with a complete rewiring of me,” he said.