'Being a little bullied': Lombard Farm tenant speaks up about religious proselytizing

WEST BARNSTABLE — Geri Moore, 75, has lived in the Housing Assistance Corporation-owned senior complex Lombard Farm for fourteen years.

Over the past couple of years, members of Victory Chapel — a full gospel Pentecostal church in Hyannis — have moved into the 12-unit development on Meetinghouse Way. Multiple times, Moore says she's been proselytized by these other tenants and feels uncomfortable, saying she "never knows when she's going to turn the corner" and become a target of a religious conversation.

She spoke to the Times in her sunny, brightly painted apartment while her dog, Sienna, sat nearby. The complex is tucked in a quiet neighborhood next to Luke's Love Boundless Playground.

"I want to be tolerant but I feel like I'm being a little bullied here," Moore said during an Aug. 30 interview with the Times. She describes herself as "openly secular, which is supposed to be the end of the conversation."

She estimates about 4 to 5 Victory Chapel members live in the complex.

Lombard Farm and Kimber Woods, a family apartment complex also in West Barnstable, were built with $11 million in mortgages and other funding from Massachusetts Housing Partnership, the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, the town of Barnstable Community Preservation Act funds and Barnstable County HOME Consortium, according to Housing Assistance Corporation materials presented at a recent public meeting in Brewster.

Multiple religious conversations

At Lombard Farm, in one particular incident on Sept. 28, 2022, Moore hosted a "Galentine's" party and told another tenant who is a Victory Chapel member that she could invite some of her friends from the church. About 10 people were at the party, including six Victory Chapel members.

Festivities at the party started off with icebreakers such as "What was your first car?" or "What was your best vacation?"

One woman used the icebreaker "What was the best moment in your life?" to dive into testimony about when she was saved, said Moore, which started a chain reaction of references to God from other attendees around the room.

Moore said she told partygoers she was uncomfortable and reminded them: "This is a party, we're supposed to get a little fun and silly."

"And then a woman just stood up: the finger-pointing, the hell and damnation, we're trying to save your soul, don't you realize you will have a life of eternity, you need to be saved now," Moore recalled. "Finally I just said, 'Party over.'"

In another awkward brush in late August, Moore said she was watching "Law & Order" on a television in the complex's living room. The Victory Chapel member who had been proselytizing at the Galentine's party came in, first to casually chat about dental implants and other topics before launching into a critique of the television show as sinful.

"Out of the blue: 'How can you watch this stuff? Don't you realize that's a sin? You're witnessing killing," said Moore.

What is Lombard Farm?

Lombard Farm opened in 2009 on land leased to the Housing Assistance Corporation by the Parker Lombard Trust. It has been lauded by Housing Assistance Corporation Executive Director Alisa Magnotta as one of two of the agency's "well-regarded affordable housing rental developments" in West Barnstable, in a 2017 editorial on the nonprofit's website. Kimber Woods is the other development.

Magnotta could not be reached Sunday or Monday for comment.

Lombard Farm, with one-bedroom apartments for seniors, and Kimber Woods, with 28 units of two- and three-bedroom apartments, were an $11 million development project by Housing Assistance Corporation and Preservation of Affordable Housing, according to Aug. 31 meeting materials presented for a funding application in Brewster.

The income mix for Lombard Farm is 100% affordable with units set aside for people with 30% area median income (projectbased), 50% area median income and 60% area median income, according to the Aug. 31 Brewster paperwork.

According to a document outlining the annual plan for the fiscal year 2023 from the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, Lombard Farms includes eight project-based vouchers. Through the federally funded Housing Choice voucher program, the state agency administers the vouchers to help families, seniors and people with disabilities with a portion of rent at properties owned by private or nonprofit owners.

Regulations do not allow organizations that receive federal Housing and Urban Development funds from engaging "in inherently religious activities, such as worship, religious instruction, or proselytizing, as part of the program or services funded by HUD."

The rule does not apply to residents, though the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development website says to organizations: "Participation in religious activities must be voluntary for your HUD-funded service beneficiaries."

"They should have no feeling or sense that their participation in inherently religious activities that are separate in time and/or place from HUD-funded activities, or even participation in something like prayer before a meal, is somehow required for them in order to receive HUD-funded services," reads the website.

Housing Assistance Corporation spokeswoman Kathryn Eident said the property is managed by the nonprofit Preservation of Affordable Housing and confirmed that a no-solicitation policy is in place.

A right to quiet, peaceful enjoyment

Tikki Stracuzzi, a senior regional property supervisor who oversees Preservation of Affordable Housing's eight properties on Cape Cod, did not respond to an email or phone call seeking comment.

In an email, Lorri Finton, the executive director of Barnstable Housing Authority, said that the resident could file a complaint with either Housing Assistance Corporation or property management. The authority does not own or manage Lombard Farms, but administers about 1,052 housing units in town, according to its website.

"It sounds like what the church members are doing are violating this woman's right to quiet, peaceful enjoyment; which is typically a part of a lease," said Finton, who noted she is not an attorney and did not have a legal answer.

Christine Baumann, a public affairs specialist at the Boston Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said in an email that tenants are required to abide by their lease. If a family has a complaint against another family in the building, they should bring it to the management company of the owner, she said.

Barnstable Town Attorney Karen Nober did not respond to a Sept. 19 request for comment from the Times.

Kate Lagreca, the communications director for the ACLU of Massachusetts, also did not respond to a Sept. 19 request for comment.

Church history dates back four decades

One Victory Chapel member who lives at Lombard Farm said in September she would speak to the Times but on Sept. 21 did not answer a phone call at the scheduled time.

The church is a "Bible-based, Spirit-filled, Non-denominational Christian church with a passion to share the good news of Jesus Christ," according to its website.

Victory Chapel has been on the Cape for over four decades, according to the church website. Pastor Paul Stephens and his family came from the Door Christian Fellowship Ministries church in Tucson, Arizona, with the church first holding services in a living room before moving to a Yarmouth storefront.

A phone call to the church was not returned, and no one was available for comment when a reporter visited the property. Pastor Paul Campo, who has ministered on Cape Cod since 1986, could not be reached for comment.

A former seven-year Victory Chapel member who requested anonymity described the church to the Times on Sept. 7 as "a church of fear" and as highly controlling and isolating. She said she initially joined when friends invited her to attend a service before leaving in the 1990s when she realized the effect the church had on her family.

One of her children was singled out in front of other church members and told "If you don't come to church, you're going to be going to hell," she said. Church members were expected to give 10% or more of their income each time they attended a service, she said.

"I didn't live in the place, but it was my life," said the ex-member.

When she spoke with the Times, Moore said she had not yet filed any formal complaint or spoken to the property manager about the matter, saying she believed "the respectful human thing is to speak directly."

"I'm very congenial with everyone. I just don't want to be preached at," said Moore.

Zane Razzaq writes about housing and real estate. Reach her at zrazzaq@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @zanerazz.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Church proselytizing at West Barnstable housing unwanted, tenant says