The suit, filed Monday, accuses the city and its officials of launching a harassment campaign against Dad’s Place, a church in Bryan, for keeping its doors open 24/7 for the homeless.
An Ohio pastor who was charged with zoning violations for housing people experiencing homelessness has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Bryan and its officials.
Earlier this year, Pastor Chris Avell decided to keep the doors of his church, Dad’s Place, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to reach out to the city’s most “vulnerable.” Bryan is a small city of about 8,600 people, 65 miles west of Toledo.
In December, Avell was hit with 18 zoning violations by the city, which claimed he had violated a city ordinance that says residents can’t stay on the first floor of that property. Further, the local fire chief found a slew of fire code violations at the church.
Avell pleaded not guilty to the charges at his Jan. 11 arraignment, according to online court records.
Now he’s suing the city, claiming discrimination on the basis of religion and claiming city officials have launched a harassment campaign against the church.
The article should be titled “City politicians upset that local church opposed to their plan to criminalize poverty”
Exactly this is the same bullshit as arresting people for feeding starving homeless
It’s fucking sick
The fire chief finding a bunch of code violations is pretty serious imo
I’m sure you can find code violations in every house or building you check.
where are the riots for better wages, housing, better public services, for actual politicians that are public servants out to do right for the citizens they themselves depend on, for worker’s rights, or for anything?
what happened to the US?
You don’t know about them because the media either refuses to cover them or misrepresents them.
For example, consider the shitshow going on around Cop City in Atlanta: the police have already murdered one protestor in cold blood, the mayor is thwarting a public referendum, etc.
We can’t do that cause that’s sOcIaLiSm (sarcasm)
We’re also really tired from our demanding jobs. Most of us also can’t just suddenly take time off work to protest these things.
Plus it’s effort driving from our homes to wherever the protests may be. I’m being partially facetious here, but these all play a factor in this.True. Can’t even get our Election Day as a federal holiday. The USA is a fucking sham.
Always has been.
The only time I’ve ever heard of a protest was after the fact. Hard to join without a time machine.
If you want to get in on protests check out news reports for organization names and get in contact. They’d love to have more people.
I’m sure Jesus would be very proud of the city officials. /s
Though I see your point, I’d rather have less Jesus in our government, not more.
The government should not block him from exercising his religion though. Housing the people experiencing homelessness is exactly what Jesus would do.
Fully agree.
The people that want Jesus in government behave nothing like what Jesus would if he were ACTUALLY in government
Having less Jesus is what causing this isn’t it?
No, people being assholes is what caused this. Mega corporations are what caused this. Jesus is a fairy tale no different than Snow White. People are what can make the world better or worse, not some mythical being or spell.
By Jesus i meant his basic teachings like feed the poor
Lol no
Just call it an “Airbnb”. That’s how homeowners get around zoning laws.
This could actually be a genius loophole. Charge some absurdly low fee as an “air bnb”.
Oh whoops, let me just give you the amount needed as a gift. Whoopsies! Sorry officer, no free housing here, these are paying guests.
people experiencing homelessness
How is that term better than “homeless people”
I think the logic is that the latter is saying that being homeless is part of who they are as a person, whereas the former sees them as regular people who are currently experiencing homelessness. It’s like how people are shifting away from saying “drug addict,” and saying things like “person addicted to drugs” or saying “undocumented” instead of “illegal” as it’s less dehumanizing.
It’s a small, subtle difference, but I get it.
This is it exactly. It’s known as “person-first” or “people-first” language, and it’s a way to be kind toward people with how one uses words. Not a bad habit to get into.
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Where are homeless people actually supposed to go?
Away
They want them visible to act as a warning to the working class; work and die or starve and die. The only thing is they want them visible to others but they don’t want to see it themselves
they are supposed to scare the middle class into not risking their livelihoods.
This is sadly correct.
Around here, apparently, miles outside of town. All the bridges have ‘no trespassing’ signs by them (in English and Spanish, and this is Indiana). I live outside of town and I regularly see people walking down the highway to get to their crappy minimum wage jobs. It probably takes them over an hour to walk, and it was -15 here last week.
So apparently where they’re supposed to go is a tent out in the woods.
police department saw a spike in calls for service in May 2023 regarding “inappropriate activity” at Dad’s Place spanning criminal mischief, trespassing, overdose, larceny, harassment, disturbing the peace and sexual assault.
Sounds like it wasn’t a problem until certain individuals started doing stupid stuff.
Now the question is : how many calls were placed?
They claim they saw more calls. I’m gonna call bullshit.
police department saw a spike in calls for service in May 2023
The city became aware that Dad’s Place was housing people in November
Even giving them the benefit of the doubt, by their own admission it took their ace detectives 6 months of responding to calls before realizing what was happening there?
“Y’all motherfuckers need Jesus!”
