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”
Or “City officials upset that local Christian community actually acts Christian.”
They’re just upset he’s worshipping the wrong Jesus
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
an inspector, hell-bent on finding violations… will ‘find’ them.
Those violations may also be “someone was sleeping in front of a fire door.”
As Mitch Hedberg joked, no one that is flammable is ever actually blocking a fire exit.
I’m sure you can find code violations in every house or building you check.