The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit in Georgia after the City of Brunswick has tried to interfere and permanently close a faith-based resource center that helps homeless individuals.
The lawsuit alleges the City of Brunswick violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act through its efforts to interfere with and permanently close The Well, affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
“Federal law protects the right of religious groups such as The Well to use their land to help others,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s civil rights division. “The division will continue to vindicate the rights of groups to exercise their religion and fight local land use laws that unlawfully restrict those rights.”
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia alleges that, since 2014, The Well, as an expression of its staff’s Christian faith, has operated a daytime hospitality and religious resource center for those experiencing homelessness, offering showers, laundry, meals and other services. It also offers an overnight warming shelter when the temperatures get below 36 degrees.
In public filings seeking federal funding, the city touted The Well’s services as part of the city’s efforts to reduce and end homelessness, but the city allegedly engaged in a campaign to close The Well, blaming it for unrelated criminal activity in Brunswick.
Even after The Well adopted safety and security measures suggested by the Brunswick Police Department, the city filed a lawsuit in state court seeking to close it.
“We will take the steps necessary, including filing suit, to protect religious exercise against unreasonable and improper restrictions,” said U.S. Attorney Jill Steinberg for the Southern District of Georgia. “This office will steadfastly defend against unlawful local action the right of institutions like The Well to lawfully use their land to help their communities as an expression of their religious beliefs.”
The complaint alleges that the city’s efforts to close The Well have imposed a substantial burden on The Well’s religious exercise, that the city lacks a compelling interest and has not employed the least restrictive means of enforcing its purported interest.
The complaint seeks injunctive relief prohibiting the city from substantially burdening The Well’s religious exercise.
RLUIPA is a federal law that protects religious institutions from unduly burdensome or discriminatory land use regulations. In June 2018, the Justice Department announced its Place to Worship Initiative, which focuses on RLUIPA’s provisions that protect the rights of houses of worship and other religious institutions to worship on their land.
Complaints of discrimination
Individuals who believe they have been subjected to discrimination in land use or zoning decisions may contact the U.S. Attorney’s Office at [email protected] or the Civil Rights Division’s Housing and Civil Enforcement Section at (800) 896-7743.
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Crystal Graham
