The homeless tents come down outside the St. Paul's by the Sea Episcopal Church after being ordered by Ocean City. Delmarva Public Media's Don Rush has this look at the issues. The full interview can be heard on this Friday's Delmarva Today at noon on WSDL and WESM.
RUSH: The tents in Ocean City that once provided shelter for the homeless outside St. Paul's by-the Sea Episcopal Church are coming down. This is Don Rush. Last year, the city made it illegal for people to sleep in public places. Then last month it notified the church that the outdoor tents had to be removed. And in early March it was told it could face a $5,000 daily fine. The city did extend its deadline through the end of the month. In our excerpt from this Friday's Delmarva Today, we talked with Pastor Jill Williams and the director of Outreach Ministries, Jill Lake, about what happens next. First, Pastor Williams.
WILLIAMS: So sometimes these folks are chronically homeless. They're generationally homeless. Some of them may have a home for a time being or find a place to stay temporarily, but long-term homeless humans. And so our lane is just to provide them with a dignified safe shelter and food and meet their needs and nothing else.
RUSH: So Jill Lake, what are the logistics in all of this?
LAKE: So we have our parish hall right now that we've been using as Pastor Jill said, for our feeding ministry, and that's a soup kitchen and a food pantry that we have open five days a week. So we've had to transform that parish hall and have the pantry and the kitchen on one side... and [we] cleared out one side. It's kind of large like a gymnasium, and we've transferred the other side for sheltering and then getting the supplies we need to house people indoors, we hired eight people. We're going to have overnight staff. There's going to be four shifts a night, two people here all the time. Those kinds of things have had to be done in a very quick manner. And we're starting small. We have 12 individuals currently sleeping on our property outside and those will be our internal 12. And there are plans for lots of laundry being done and hopefully some showers being taken and getting everybody cleaned up to come inside and start fresh.
RUSH: How many people do you expect them to take in at any given time?
LAKE: We really have no idea. The law that Pastor Jill referred to about making it illegal to sleep on public property that was enacted last spring or summer, and then it was still variably enforced. And so we really don't know how many people are going to be coming and trying to ask to have shelter here. No one really knows because the law hasn't been in place and been enforced for a full summer season yet.
RUSH: The city has said that the current situation with the tents was untenable and moved forward with its deadline. Resort city manager, Terry McGinn.
MCGINN: [I] Told them that the tents were a zoning violation. I actually told them if they want to come in and attempt to get a permit for either to have the tents or to do something else, they should do so and gave them until the end of February to do that. They took absolutely no action to get a permit, either to have the tents or to do something else, and the end of February came and went. And therefore, in March we told them if the tents were not removed, we were going to cite them as a zoning violation. They since came and asked if they could have till April 1st to have the tents removed and we agreed to that.
RUSH: Pastor Williams said she was disappointed. There was not more time to find a solution.
WILLIAMS: The relationship has been surprisingly strained. We went and spoke with the city and we told them of our long-term plans. We kept in touch with them every week and we asked for Grace and we ask for partnership. This is a community problem and this is their community.
RUSH: Pastor Williams and the director of Outreach Ministries, Jill Lake with St. Paul's by-the Sea Episcopal Church. We also heard from the resorts city manager, Terry McGinn. The full interviews can be heard on this Friday's Delmarva Today at noon on WSDL and WESM. This is Don Rush for Delmarva Public Media.
