Just a few days ago, on January 23rd, 2024, an Ohio pastor was charged with zoning violations for allowing the homeless to stay and sleep in his church during these cold winter days. Chris Avell, a pastor from Bryan, Ohio runs the church “Dad’s Place”. According to Marlene Lenthang a writer for NBC News, “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.”” (Jan 23.) He’s allowing homeless people a safe space to stay to ensure their safety.
NBC News provided a link to the pdf of the press release of the charges from the City of Bryan. Reading this pdf, one of the charges stated that Avell needs to cease housing in the next 10 days. Which means he is required by the state to remove all homeless people that have been living there. If he does not follow this, there is a possibility that he could be fined $100-$500 or imprisoned for 6 months, or both.
On January 22, 2024, Dad’s Place filed a lawsuit against the state. According to Daniel Miller, a reporter for FOX 10, who interviewed Chris Avell “providing food and shelter to people in need is a religious activity and it’s being threatened by city officials related to zoning laws.” (Jan 23.) The City of Bryan continued to jab at Avell about fire codes and hood roofs in their kitchen, but nothing will stop Avell from making his church a safe place for everyone.
