DOJ sides with church in lawsuit against city's ban on feeding the homeless

The Department of Justice filed a statement of interest Tuesday in a lawsuit against an Oregon city's ordinance stopping a church from feeding the homeless more than two days a week.

St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Brookings, Oregon has been providing free lunches to homeless people and others in need since 2009. Initially, the church offered the free meals one day a week, but as the homelessness crisis worsened in the city, St. Timothy's expanded its program. Between 2015 and 2020, the church gave meals every Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday, as well as every other Monday.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered other free meal services in the city, and St. Timothy's expanded its program to fit the need, according to the DOJ. The service grew to five or six days per week. St. Timothy's provides over 210 hot meals every week, according to its website.

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A neighbor of the church, however, complained to the city, saying they were concerned about "public safety and the personal expenses of homeowners living next to the church." Another neighbor objected to how the church "hand[ed] out food all day and let transients hang out there and stroll over to the park to hang out," according to the DOJ statement.

The neighbors brought Brookings officials a "Petition to Remove Homeless from St. Timothy Church." The petition alleged "multiple crimes" had been committed by those the church had been helping, but the only crimes cited were littering and one instance of mail being stolen. In response, the city of Brookings passed a new ordinance requiring groups providing "benevolent meal services" to get an additional permit, and limited the distribution of meals to only two days per week at most.

St. Timothy's sued the city, saying that the ordinance ran afoul of its First Amendment rights. Church officials said their religious beliefs compelled them to feed the hungry "when the need exists," according to the DOJ. The Rev. James Bernard Lindley, vicar of the church, said he saw the program as "acts of worship critical to my Christian faith."

"It is my deeply held religious belief that feeding the hungry, respecting the dignity of every human being, and building community are necessary acts during our time on Earth,” Lindley wrote in a declaration as part of the lawsuit.

The DOJ's statement of interest urges the court to dismiss Brookings' request for summary judgement. Brookings did not demonstrate a "compelling governmental interest" to limit the meal program, nor is it the "least restrictive means of protecting the city's identified interest," the statement says.

“Many churches and faith-based organizations across the country are on the front lines serving the critical needs of people experiencing hunger and homelessness,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “Discriminatory zoning restrictions that burden and limit religious organizations’ use of their land violate federal antidiscrimination laws. The Justice Department is committed to enforcing federal civil rights laws to ensure that all religious groups can freely exercise their religious beliefs.”