Great Falls sues First United Methodist Church for zoning code violation months into housing crisis

The City of Great Falls is suing the First United Methodist Church to enforce its zoning requirements as it pertains to campgrounds, a city press release said Tuesday.

Unhoused persons have taken refuge at the church located at 610 2nd Ave. N and for months it has been a topic stirring fiery debate in public comment at the city commission, with folks wanting the city to do more to provide for the unhoused and those who see it as a problem that taxpayers should not be responsible for solving.

Pastor Jeff Wakeley of First United Methodist said that the church had not been served the lawsuit papers and therefore did not have comment on the matter.

The church is zoned in the city’s C-4 central business core. This permits emergency shelter with a conditional use permit, which the church has submitted and is being processed by city staff, according to the release. The application will be presented to the Great Falls Zoning Commission within the next few weeks.

The C-4 district does not permit campgrounds, which is the basis of the city’s suit in District Court. According to the release, the Church was placed on notice regarding the tent and camper encampment violation and the city says the church did not respond to that notice by removing the tents and camping arrangements as directed.

There have been several public nuisance complaints related to the unhoused living on the church’s property.

“That process can ultimately lead to a City Commission hearing on the matter and a possible order from the City Commission that the nuisance conditions on the property be abated,” the release read.

“The City had hoped that First United Methodist Church would work with the Great Falls Local Continuum of Care and other existing service providers to assist the homeless. Instead, First United has sought to expand its efforts stating that the City has not done enough to support a ‘low barrier’ shelter.”

There is a limited supply of housing in the Great Falls area, with the the median home price going up $31,000 from January to December 2020, according to a housing study released by The Concord Group earlier this year. By the end of 2021, that number jumped again by $53,500 to a median price of $265,000.

Rent in Cascade County have gone up 6.5% since 2019, according to the Washington Post.

Housed Great Falls, a group that has been meeting at the church to discuss potential solutions to housing, met Tuesday night at First United Methodist Church. The group is working to form a nonprofit organization with the end goal to create a new shelter for the unhoused and is partnering with the church in this mission, but plan for it to be non-denominational.

The organization is encouraging participation from the public and are asking folks with ideas to contribute to message them via their Facebook page under the name “Housed Great Falls.”

“A little stability goes a long way,” said Jeff Falk, stakeholder liaison for Housed Great Falls.

Wakeley said the organizations in town like Opportunities Inc. can help for a few nights but not much longer than that. The group hopes to partner with nonprofits in the area already doing this work to help fill in the gaps.

“What do you do with these persons? Where do they go? Where do they live? And many are starting to live in cars, whatever trailer place they can get, or in a tent, someplace around the town,” Wakeley said.

Board member of the organization Kenton Miller said they are not trying to undermine the work being done by the Rescue Mission, a religious organization that provides shelter for the homeless. During a February Homeless Task Force meeting at the church, a person familiar with the folks living on the street said that there’s a “stigma” associated with the Rescue Mission among the unhoused.

“We're not trying to undermine the mission or go against them. We want to work alongside them and maybe take it a step further,” Miller said. “They're a private organization. They can set whatever rules they want.”

When asked to comment on the critiques some folks have brought up against having a new shelter during city commission meetings, like the believed potential impact on taxpayers, Lauren Bacon of Housed Great Falls said that this shelter will end up saving the city money in the long run.

“Denver Permanent Supportive Housing Pay for Success Project” out of Harvard Kennedy School’s Government Performance Lab found that the city's costs in partnering with mental health programs to house the homeless offset costs that would have been spent on local emergency services; 75% of Denver’s cost for Colorado Coalition for the Homeless participants and 94% of its cost for Mental Health Center of Denver participants was offset by other avoided costs.

The Great Falls nonprofit-to-be is looking at cities like Denver, as well as Missoula and others, to model potential solutions.

NeighborWorks Great Falls is already working towards the “housing first” approach to help the homeless population with the conversion of the Baatz building downtown into affordable housing with wrap-around services.

Wakeley said Tuesday that he will be moving churches to Mountain View United Methodist Church in Woodland Park, Colorado. Reverend Dawn Skerritt will be taking over for Wakeley.

“They just need me at another church, my skills and my gifts and graces for another church,” he said.

Morgan Yegerlehner of Housed Great Falls said the organization has met with Skeritt and is excited to collaborate with her.

This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: Great Falls sues First United Methodist Church over zoning code