Pennsylvania Town Threatens Churches With $500 Fines for Providing Free Meals, Counseling Services
Borough officials in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, told Mission First and Christ Episcopal churches that their charitable work goes beyond what the zoning code allows for downtown churches.
Two Philadelphia-area churches have come under fire from local zoning officials, who say their free meal services, mental health counseling, and monthly pantries aren't allowed on their properties and will have to stop or else they risk fines.
In early June, Pottstown staff sent letters to Christ Episcopal Church and Mission First, saying that this charitable work went beyond the allowable activities for churches in the borough's Downtown zoning district.
"I am writing this letter with compassion for those affected by the COVID pandemic and with gratitude to residents who've provided aid to those in need throughout that period," wrote Pottstown Zoning Officer Winter Stokes in a letter to one of the churches obtained by WHYY, which first reported the story. "However, as the Zoning Officer, I must enforce the zoning code."
Stokes' letters specifically lists regular provision of mental health counseling to families, weekly buffet meals, and the distribution of soap, razors, toothbrushes, and other essential items as disallowed uses.
The two churches can either apply for a zoning variance—which requires going before the borough's Zoning Hearing Board—or stop the disallowed charitable work. Failure to do either of those things could result in the churches being hit with $500 fines for every day they're out of compliance.
"It was an absolute surprise when we got this letter," says Dennis Coleman, the deacon of Christ Episcopal Church. He says that his church has been providing meals and an "essentials" pantry for years without incident.
"We've been doing the one meal a week for as long as anyone can remember," which typically feeds about 60 people, Coleman says. The church also runs a "Last Week of the Month" program that provides people with food, essential items, or even assistance in paying gas and electric bills.
Christ Episcopal Church in Pottstown and the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania both hired attorneys after receiving the letter from the borough and are trying to negotiate a solution that will let the church continue its longstanding charitable work.
The borough gave Christ Episcopal Church and Mission First until this coming Sunday to cease their activities or apply for a variance.
Coleman tells Reason that his church has no intention of stopping its activities or applying for a variance.
"We would need a variance to ask permission to do what Jesus calls us to do. And we're not in the mood to ask permission to do what we've always done or what we're commanded to do," he says.
Pottstown borough staff did not respond to emails requesting comment.
Churches' charitable activities often don't fit neatly into commercial or residential categories defined by municipal zoning codes. That makes them occasional targets of code enforcement.
Reason has covered cases of an Oregon church's soup kitchen being prohibited by its residential zoning and a New York church's cold weather shelter being prohibited by its commercial zoning.
Even when charitable activities are allowed by the zoning code, the process for getting them approved is long and discretionary. Frequently, it will involve public hearings where opponents have the opportunity to urge zoning officials to deny permits for a new soup kitchen or shelter.
Those critical voices can often crowd out the beneficiaries of these privately provided services, as well as the people who are happy to support them.
"People come in for a meal, or come into the pantry, it's an opportunity to get to know folks and journey along with them," says Coleman. "Everything in our pantry, and our meals, good folks donate to that. People want to support this."
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Many many years ago, I lived in San Francisco about half a block from an Episcopalian church (Bush and Gough?) which fed the homeless breakfast at 6am. Naturally they began lining up hours early, fighting, pushing, arguing, joking, all loudly and mostly drunkenly. They’d pee and poop on nearby doorsteps out of the wind.
Someone organized a neighborhood group and tried to talk the minister (preacher? pastor? priest?) into starting breakfast a couple of hours later. His response was to start it even sooner. We had a meeting nearby; he showed up with his favorite goons and outshouted us. The SF Examiner did an exposé, showing he lived in the ritzy Marina district, owned a Mercedes, but drove an old beater to the church. Apparently he had many similar encounters at all the other churches he’d been at, and had always been encouraged to move along.
If these churches are doing anything at all similar, I have little sympathy for them
Trinity and St Peters Episcopal Church, Bush and Gough. Ha! Memory still working these zillion years later.
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Cool story, bro.
No way!
Yeah, the public nuisance that comes with these charitable operations is something that often gets left out of the stories. I used to live in Philly, and public parks where churches or charities would feed the homeless would become overrun with homeless people at all hours of the day. Many of them were high, drunk, or mentally ill, shitting and pissing everywhere, fighting, etc. It makes the public spaces unusable for other people.
There does need to be some consideration for the taxpaying public’s ability to use public spaces.
The reason Skid Row is Skid Row is because of the homeless outreach in downtown LA. Big ass “rescue mission” there, just south of Little Tokyo where thousands would congregate there for whatever reason then have nothing to do after their night’s sleep or lunch, so they’d go and camp in front of all the businesses for blocks in any direction.
It’s different now, of course, but the same in this way. Build it and they will come. And shit on your doorstep.
You are a hateful person who only cares about yourself
Slander is the tool of the loser.
Sure. Why not?
You might try to explain how this is wrong, though. Seems a better use of 1s and 0s than pointing out something I obviously already know.
Let them shit in your doorstep.
When facts fail you, sling mud at the person.
Pathetic.
I am very protective of the 1st amendment.
There ARE two sides to every story.
While I am sympathetic with “Stuck in California,” I support the right of the church to do “God’s work” WITHOUT permission from the State.
Having said that, it seems to me that you are the Hateful Person that lacks caring for those that have to live near the disasters.
The fact of the matter is that “Freedom of Religion” is ONLY one of several competing rights.
That is in direct competition with the unalienable right to Property and all that entails.
The Church’s Freedom of Religion is on their property.
If, as “Stuck in California” suggested, the Church work is interfering with the resident’s unalienable Individual Rights, the Church does NOT take priority.
Freedom of Religion, like Freedom of Speech, Press, Association, etc. are only tiny fragments of each of our individual right to Life Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness.
Just because it is a CHURCH does NOT make its right any greater than the neighboring residents.
Just where do you think the money comes for these “Poor, suffering, hungry homeless people.
It is from people just like the harassed neighbors that live next to these Ungrateful, Obnoxious, ne’er-do-wells, making a nuisance of themselves in the neighborhood where people are trying to sleep so they can get up, go to work and earn money, part of which supports the Churches and their outreach programs.
You really should try walking a mile in their shoes.
This reasons for need are many yet you have passed judgement and labelled those in need as the same ones “who shit in doorways”. That is not your concern but rather a law enforcement concern and aspect they must deal with. THEY’ RE PAID out of tax revenues to enforce laws.
A person without anything to survive will revert to behaviors thought to be feral and they have the mindset of rejecting your type of reality to that below animals- who can at least enjoy the wild preying on wildlife or being preyed upon. Drugs may be already a problem but many start after their resources run out.
I can list numerous scenarios and list your narrow-mindedness but you get the picture you paint.
instead of blaming the organisations providing for some needsof the riffraff, why do not local law enforcement begin taking steps to “discourage” the undesirable behaviour you describe? WHY is it the ones causing the harm get a free pass/free ride while everyone else must endure their garbage of various sorts?
I know if I were doing the things you describe in mY city’s parks and public spaces I’d get a free ride downtown and have some papers to sign. Oh, and a free orange onesie to put on. NOW.
But no,its more convenieint to blame the groups trying to help, isn’t it?
I agree. What is a church or other organization to do to help, if the neighborhood be deterred by the clientele? People object to bars for the same reason. I suppose they could supply meals on wheels, but that would cost more, and some of the recipients don’t have addresses.
And if the government had to step in and provide all those services, it would cost 10 times as much and none of the nuisances would be fixed.
There’s the problem. I belong to a small neighborhood social club. The Club opened at Noon and we always had some of our elderly members com in then to play cards. We’d always have a meal for them and a couple of our members who were nurses would check on them. When we had the COVID shutdown that all stopped. A group of us got together and would make meals for them and deliver them to their homes. One day when we were making the meals the police showed up. Someone called them and said that we had the Club open. Once they saw what was going on, there was no problem, the cops were cool. Somebody mentioned what we were doing and the State Agency on Aging got involved. They were a problem. They wanted a list of the people we were taking food to. They wanted to make sure that they were registered with them. They got so much State and Federal funding for each person registered with them and how dare we cheat them out of THEIR MONEY.
I presume that this agency did not want to do the obvious: volunteer to deliver the food, which would give them a chance to meet the clients. But that would be like _working_, and people don’t hire on at a nebulous government agency to _work_.
Nobody is blaming anyone.
At least I’m not.
Just pointing out that, when you provide substantial services to a certain clientele, you end up with a huge influx of that clientele into the neighborhood. It affects a lot more than just, in the case of the story above, the church itself.
Maybe you’re right and police should calm the rabblerousers. I somehow doubt they will, though in a better world they’d hold the homeless accountable for themselves. But in this world, most of the homeless are suffering from addiction and mental illness, will never respond to a summons, will never pay a fine, and if they’re arrested they’re back on the street immediately. The police have limited tools and mostly don’t want to deal with them at all.
I might turn your comment back on you, though, and point out that it sure is convenient to assume your own experience in your local park extends to inner city homeless in a place like downtown LA or San Francisco. If you genuinely believe that, I think you’re a bit naive.
go ahead, demonstrate your maturity and think the worst of these outfits in PA.
SF was a cesspit since the 1960’s, I know I spent time there then. Its mostly only gotten worse.
This “zone” officer seems to think it (genderless given name) must uphold the codes” which preclude the activities listed. Nothing was said about activites of other sorts, such as the ones you describe.
Why would 8 AM have been less bothersome than 6? I’d’ve thought clearing out before rush hour would’ve been less disruptive, not more. So it became 5 AM instead? Or 4?
He mentioned that. People started lining up hours earlier and causing a disturbance.
It seems more and more that a lot of commenters here are not consistent libertarians but selectively choose when to apply their libertarian principles based on a general dislike for anything the feel smells “progressive” like helping the poor.
It has always been the libertarain position that private charity, like churches, should fulfill the role of assistance to the poor instead of the state which used tax dollars brought about coercion. It seems however that increasingly in the Reason comments section there is a new breed of Reason fan who simply dislikes the poor, and is quite happy with the state puttin restrictions on churches, businesses, freedom of speech and assembly, as long as it is perceived to be in line with their politics and class interests. Vulgar libertarianism indeed.
Why bother with libertarianism? Wouldn’t authoritarian conservatism suit you better?
The authoritarian “progressives” far outnumber the authoritarian conservatives.
Once again, the lawyers are the only real winners in this scenario.
To paraphrase Abe Lincoln (who was a lawyer, but never forgot earning his living by physical labor), we have government of the people, by the lawyers, and for the lawyers.
I will keep repeating this
government does not like competition
they always stop those who show it can be done better without the governments help.
Without government, who would threaten the people who are feeding the less-fortunate?
They are not in Philadelphia. Pottstown is a city of its own in upstate Pennsylvania
41 miles from Philly.
Pottstown is not “upstate Pennsylvania.” You are thinking of PottsVILLE, home of Yuengling Lager.
Pottstown is in Montgomery County in southeast PA, which is one of the counties directly adjacent to Philadelphia County. It’s a bedroom community for Philly.
Someone should go find a bible and read the bits about seeing others in need, and having the means to meet that need, and refusing, being like stealing it from the one in need. Or, simpler ones, like care for the por, care for one another, do unto others as you would have done to yourself, etc. These people READ that Book and simply DO what it tells us to do.
Thus the city poohbah ordering them to stop should be shown the part in the First Article of Ammendment which deals with “preventing the free exercise thereof”.
I am amazed every day when I read an article like this one. Giving a church a fine for feeding people? Why not close them down for following Scripture? They are obviously religious nutcases. Or we could take another path. Why not call for an immediate reading of the town’s laws and have a vote on which ones to scrap? It is government by the people and for the people isn’t it? This is THE ONLY way to curtail politicians who think that they know better than everyone else…..
Hate to say it, but the are in the wrong. If the zoning laws don’t allow it, then they simply don’t allow it. Have they never read: “Let every person be in subjection to the superior authorities,+ for there is no authority except by God; the existing authorities stand placed in their relative positions by God. 2 Therefore, whoever opposes the authority has taken a stand against the arrangement of God; those who have taken a stand against it will bring judgment against themselves. 3 For those rulers are an object of fear, not to the good deed, but to the bad..” Romans 13:1-3a.
If the local authorities say they need to apply for a zoning variance, then they have no right to do anything else and defying established law because it’s what THEY think is right is DEFYING the law of the Christ.
Sorry, I meant to say “they are in the wrong”.
Nonsensical reading of Romans. There is such a thing as unGodly “authority”, consider the Pharisees. The “governing authorities” are not people, they are principles.
If it was so clearly in the wrong, then why have they been able to be wrong for so many years?
There’s the rub: it’s one thing to have a formal rule — and it is of course critical that the rule be a good one — but all rules must be implemented, and the implementation is every bit as important as the rule itself.
And as to your Scripture quote, I don’t think it’s fair to say that what the churches are doing here is “opposing” authority in the same sense as Paul is using it. The opposition Paul is referring to is the rejection of an earthly authority to the point of lawlessness. That’s the import of verse 3, where he talks about earthly rulers being a (legitimate) object of fear to the bad. What these churches are doing isn’t morally bad.
However, I would go along with you to chide that church who decided they’re not even going to talk to the zoning authorities. That’s just not good civic behavior. I wouldn’t call that morally bad, but it is not advised.
“If the zoning laws don’t allow it, then they simply don’t allow it.”
You do realize this is a *libertarian* publication, right? Zoning laws infringe on property owners’ rights to do what they want with their property.
Acts 5:29 “But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.'”
socialist hate churches
socialist hate religion
socialist hate god.
Does the town also forbid churches from holding pot-luck suppers?
The more food you put out for the pigeons, the more pigeons come for the free food.
Their contribution is little more than trash and pigeon poop.
Time to STOP enabling and start uplifting.
You want to eat, you get to work.
Petty government: Not doing their jobs, and not letting anyone else do them, either.
“We would need a variance to ask permission to do what Jesus calls us to do. And we’re not in the mood to ask permission to do what we’ve always done or what we’re commanded to do”
More of this.
Pottstown has been crappy for decades. Churches feeding people suddenly became a issue. What changed?
Probably the effects of 2+ years of terrible federal and state policies.
The number of street people and other poor people using the churches’ charity multiplied. But I suspect the main issue was that the number of people coming downtown for shopping and other businesses dropped to nearly zero, making the charity clientele almost the only people on the streets.
If a Democrat goes to get something done….it generally takes a conscensous of about 4 to 5 people….they they will vote to organize a fact finding committee….upon that 4 months period…then they will present findings to a city body, which in turn appoints an oversight committee, to see if every item on the list will fit into the community, then there will be consultants to be paid, and after a year or so….they will finally get something done and passed thru the City Councel.
Mountains of Regulations
Mountains of Red Tape Procedures
Mountains of tax payer money spent
On the flip side….you take two Republicans and they are having coffee, and they agree on something that needs doing, and in 5 minutes they shake hands on the deal, and go and get it started and done with.
No regulations
No money
No red-tape
A Republican run city or organization will have much less staff than a Democratically run city. Go figure…….
That’s unfair to people that majored in “___ Studies” and are unfit to work for anything but a government agency.
Regardless of what Pottstown thinks it can do, it has NO AUTHORITY over any activity within a church. Constitutionally speaking, NO LAW REGARDING RELIGION. If a church’s beliefs include feeding the hungry and helping the mentally ill, that all falls under the CHURCH, not the government.
SUE THE HELL OUT OF THE CITY. They will lose.
The city won’t lose if this is truly a regulation applicable to all, not one singling out religion. So… I wonder where the local welfare offices, government homeless shelters, and government soup kitchens are located? If they’ve given any such site an exemption from the regulations they put on private organizations including churches, I hope the judge slams them with heavy fines – to be paid by the officials, not the taxpayers.