Church's homeless ministry back after permit delayed

Church's homeless ministry back after permit delayed

A suburban Chicago ministry that provides food, counseling and direction for the homeless is operating inside its home church again after being forced out last year by city officials who said there were code violations inside its area of the building. A law firm counseling the church says municipal leaders created other delays in restoring ministry operations.

The Hope, Encouragement, Love, Prayer and Salvation charity, known as HELPS, had to operate out of mobile locations and at other churches for over six months, this after having to leave Family Life Church in Elgin, Illinois, in late September. HELPS was forced to leave the church following an alleged finding of more than 100 code violations upon inspection by the city, according to church counsel, John Mauck of Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).

That inspection result came after the city raised the fee for a conditional use permit for the ministry from $750 to over $1,300, Mauck notes. Then, he says, after the alleged violations were corrected and the permit approved by a zoning board, the Elgin City Council refused to cast a vote to affirm the zoning commissioners' decision.

"They took it off the agenda -- it should have been approved in late November or December -- and wouldn't say why, and wouldn't say if they were going to vote on it," the ADF attorney contends. "They just stonewalled," he says.

Family Life Church had to file a federal lawsuit in January 2007 to force a vote by the council just two weeks ago, after which HELPS re-opened, Mauck points out. ADF's intent was to compel the city to vote up or down on the permit, he says, "because we knew they had a legal obligation to approve it, in that the church had met all the requirements in the zoning code."

Mauck adds that the church plans to continue its lawsuit in the hopes of making provision to keep what he calls "bullying and discrimination" from happening to other similar ministries.