A small church in Rockford, Ill., received national attention this week after the public learned that city officials told Pastor Dave Frederick that housing the city’s homeless population in the church was a violation of city zoning laws.
Amid the record-low temperatures most of the country endured this winter, Frederick opened up the Apostolic Pentecostal Church to Rockford’s homeless population for the first time. The pastor said up to 50 people would seek refuge in the church, sleeping in the church’s pews.
“Anyone who wanted to spend the night got blankets and pillows. Ladies would make dinner,” he said.
The church only shut its doors three times this winter, which Frederick says happened in December when his wife had a heart attack. He said he opened up the church as a shelter because the only other shelter, the Rockford Rescue Mission, usually fills up very fast and doesn’t allow alcohol or drugs, so those who drink or do drugs are not allowed.
But last week Rockford city officials told Frederick that his use of the church space as a shelter was a violation of zoning laws and that he could either renovate the building or buy a new building for about $300,000. Frederick protested the officials’ threats, saying that the woods, park benches and undersides of bridges don’t meet zoning requirements for a shelter, either.
“To be honest I think Rockford doesn’t want to accommodate homeless people. They seem to think that if you accommodate the homeless, they’ll come, if you don’t accommodate them they’ll leave,” he said. “Since many have been homeless for years, obviously that’s not true.”
In recent years, several states and cities have passed laws that criminalize homelessness. For example, a town in South Carolina requires homeless people to be in a shelter as part of its “Emergency Homeless Response” plan. If an “unsightly” homeless person is found on the street and refuses to go to a shelter, he or she will be taken to jail.
Other cities in states such as Florida and California have also passed similar measures.
Since Frederick doesn’t have the money to renovate or to move his church to another location, the pastor found himself stuck between wanting to do good work and being a law-abiding citizen. But as luck, or maybe karma, would have it, the widespread attention Frederick’s story has received resulted in individuals and churches throughout the United States offering to pitch in money to house Rockford’s homeless.
Frederick said he is now determined to re-open the warming center at the church as a place for homeless people to sleep year round. However, Todd Cagnoni, director of community and economic development with the City of Rockford, said Frederick “would need to apply for a special use permit to be considered by our city council to establish the homeless shelter.”
Cagnoni said he is working with Frederick so the pastor and his fellow church leaders can decide if they want to expand the building and make a sleeping area or open a new building. If Frederick does decide to expand the church, city officials say a special use permit would be required, which could take more than a month to be approved. A public community hearing would also be required because the church is located in a residential area.
Since the presence of homeless populations is an “eyesore” that lowers property values, it seems unlikely that the church’s expansion plans would pass. But given the rough state of the economy, which has led to homelessness even among people with PhD’s and former business owners, suburban America may have had a change of heart in how it views the homeless.