Federal court rules in favor of Colorado church blocked from running homeless shelter

The Church of the Rock in Castle Rock, Colorado, is a nondenominational Christian church that was founded in the 1980s. After a legal battle with the town over a short-term homeless shelter, the church was vindicated on July 19, 2024, and permitted to continue its ministry on church property. / Credit: Photo courtesy of First Liberty Institute

CNA Staff, Jul 22, 2024 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

A federal judge sided with a Colorado church Friday in its dispute with a Denver-area town, granting the church the right to offer temporary housing for the homeless on its property.

Beginning in 2019, The Rock Church, a nondenominational church in Castle Rock, a town south of Denver, provided a recreational vehicle (RV) and a camper on the edge of its parking lot to temporarily shelter people experiencing homelessness. The church also provides temporary shelter during emergencies through a partnership with the Red Cross. 

On several occasions, town officials blocked the ministry, saying that housing people on church grounds violated zoning laws.

The Town of Castle Rock first notified the church of a zoning violation in 2021 and charged the church in 2023. 

In the lawsuit, which was filed in May, the church alleged that Castle Rock was “apparently operating on the cynical thesis that they do not want the homeless in their area.”

The lawsuit cited Scripture highlighting that helping the poor is essential to Christianity, arguing that the restriction infringes on the church’s religious freedom. The lawsuit also noted that there had been no safety complaints and that the shelters are barely visible from local residential housing, which is about 300 feet away from the parking lot.

The court ruled against the Town of Castle Rock on July 19, preventing the town from enforcing its land-use laws against the church to block the shelter. Additionally, the judge denied the church’s second and third claims that alleged interference by the town in the church’s Red Cross partnership. 

“We are pleased with the decision of the court that allows the church to carry out its religious freedom on its property,” Jeremy Dys, senior counsel with First Liberty Institute, a Christian legal nonprofit that argued the case, said in a statement shared with CNA.

“The court reopened the door of a caring church whose mission has always been to offer a warm environment for the homeless living on the cold, hard streets,” he added. 

U.S District Judge Daniel Domenico ruled that under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a 2000 law designed to protect religious organizations from discrimination in zoning laws, the church could practice its homeless shelter ministry on its nonresidential property. 

“The church contends that it carries out these ministries because of its faith and its religious mission to provide for the needy, emphasizing the fact that ‘the Holy Bible specifically and repeatedly directs faithful Christians like the church’s members to care for the poor and needy out of compassion and mercy for those who are experiencing significant misfortune and hardship,’” the judge wrote in the 18-page order.  

When launching the ministry, The Rock Church planned to provide short-term housing for families and individuals in need as well as food, clothing, and other material necessities. The church has since housed several individuals and families, including a single mother and her 3-year-old son, as well as two people recovering from addiction. 

In its suit against the town, the church said the restrictions violated First Amendment rights and religious freedom as well as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. 

The Rock Church argued that it “has suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm, including the loss of its constitutional rights,” and noted in its initial May 13 complaint that the town has no other temporary-shelter alternatives. 

The judge noted that “the church takes a number of precautions to ensure that its temporary shelter is safe,” including background checks by a third party and rules for conduct for RV tenants. 

Domenico found that the town’s restriction was irreparably harmful for the church’s practice of its sincerely-held religious beliefs. 

“The fact that the church has already had to turn away homeless families in need, in violation of its sincerely held beliefs that it must serve and house them on its property, makes this harm all too clear,” he noted.