The First Liberty Institute filed a federal lawsuit towards the City of Fortress Rock on Tuesday. This after city officers sought to close down the momentary, emergency shelter ministry of “The Rock.”
The Rock is a church that had supplied momentary and emergency shelter for individuals who have all of a sudden grow to be unhoused.
CBS Information Colorado first lined the story when the city mentioned the church’s use of RVs to shelter the homeless was a zoning violation. Since 2019, the church has given shelter to the homeless in two RVs on the again aspect of their 54-acre property. At the moment, a consultant from the city declined to be interviewed by CBS Information Colorado.
Within the lawsuit, the church claims that the city mandated the church cease its efforts to supply momentary and emergency shelter, interfered with its potential to function a Purple Cross emergency shelter and retaliated towards the church by threatening the enterprise license of a espresso service situated within the church.
“Church buildings that take motion to take care of the homeless must be inspired and affirmed, not opposed and retaliated towards,” mentioned First Liberty Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys in a press release. “It isn’t sufficient for the city to attempt to cease this church from utilizing its property to offer momentary shelter to displaced single mothers and their youngsters. The city can be attempting to forestall the church from partnering with the Purple Cross in occasions of emergency.”
As of September 2023, after years of backwards and forwards with the church, the City of Fortress Rock formally decided using RVs as momentary shelters to be a zoning violation.
In response to the church, “the City of Fortress Rock, Colorado, has no emergency or momentary shelters inside city limits for people all of a sudden with no secure dwelling. Together with offering meals, garments, sneakers, monetary help, and small kitchen objects, The Rock works with people displaced as a result of life circumstances to offer a short lived place of shelter in a single trailer and one RV parked on the again of the church’s property – greater than 400 toes from any resident property.”
