Church sues North Coventry for rights violation

A federal lawsuit alleges a Chester County township violated a church's rights by preventing it from offering shelter to the homeless.

Shenkel United Church of Christ says in a suit filed yesterday that North Coventry Township cited zoning restrictions when informed in 2007 that the church planned to resume its winter practice of providing a month of emergency shelter "for those in need."

In his only comments, township manager Kevin Hennessey referenced "a factual error" in the suit, which said that after a year of dialogue, the township refused to allow the church to operate a shelter.

"Our interpretation of the building code is that they are allowed 16 individuals without installing a sprinkler system," he said. "They wanted unlimited people."

The church's attorney, Louis R. Moffa Jr., said the church could not pay tens of thousands of dollars for sprinklers. And he disagreed with the township's interpretation of the state law that Hennessey cited.

"The 16-person limit applies to residential facilities, which this is not," Moffa said.

According to the suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, the church participated for three years, beginning in 2002, in Montgomery County's "One Night at a Time." Under that program, Shenkel provided emergency shelter for a month.

The "One Night" program ended with the opening of a shelter at Norristown State Hospital in 2005 that quickly generated "a long waiting list," the suit said. To fill the void, Ministries at Main Street began a program in January 2007 that Shenkel sought to join, the suit said. Participating churches agreed to open from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. for one month.

"It's a very important ministry for the church - one that they should be able to pursue," Moffa said.

He said on a freezing night, 20 to 40 people were bused from participating churches to the facility designated for shelter.

Moffa said the township maintained that it did not prohibit the earlier program because it did not know about it. The Rev. Bonnie Moore, church pastor, said she was not present during the earlier program and did not know whether the township had been notified.

"We've missed two winters of reaching out to people in need," she said. "We want to resolve this."

Moffa said that the church was not seeking monetary damages and that it simply wanted to resume its mission.