A Castle Rock, Colorado, church and town officials may soon see each other in court. The bone of contention is the church’s housing of homeless people in RVs. Town officials say zoning rules don’t allow it. The church says it answers to a higher authority.
Sixth-most-populated Colorado county—but no homeless shelters
Castle Rock is in Douglas County, and with a population of nearly 358,000, is Colorado’s sixth-most-populous county. Halfway between Denver and Colorado Springs, it has the highest median household income of any of the state’s counties. In fact, Douglas County income is the 7th highest in the U.S. Adding to the list of Douglas County’s standouts—it has no official homeless shelters. It did have a winter shelter network, but that network was shut down last year. When it did operate, The Rock Church, in Castle Rock, was a network member.
Two RVs for housing of homeless people—on 54-acre site
Back in 2016, The Rock Church began sheltering people in a couple of RVs in its parking lot. It’s not as if two RVs on a 54-acre property are a heavy hit. Nor could it be said that the church’s operation is a magnet for out-of-area drop-ins. Mike Polhemus, the church’s pastor, points out the ones they help are locals. Speaking with the Castle Rock News Press, Polhemus said, “These are people already in our community, our neighbors, who are just going through a difficult time. We’re trying to quickly get them back on their feet so it doesn’t become a homeless problem.”
Unwelcome letter comes after a complaint
But last September, the church got an unwelcome letter from Castle Rock’s town manager and director of development services. In it, town officials told the church that they were out of conformance with local zoning rules, which didn’t have a provision for temporary housing. The town indicated that they were motivated to write after hearing at least one complaint about The Rock Church’s RV housing.
The church went to Castle Rock’s Board of Adjustment, filing a formal appeal. The church got nowhere. Any who might have needed shelter from Douglas County storms would find no respite in the church’s RVs. Since the letter from the town, there has been no more housing of homeless people at The Rock.
Formal complaint filed, but church hopes litigation won’t be needed
What Mike Polhemus hoped could be avoided—and still hopes—has started on the track that could lead to litigation. The Rock Church has now filed a formal complaint in district court. The legal stands that the church takes are multifold. It claims Castle Rock’s zoning rules allow for “church related uses.” It also points to the Religious Land Use and Institutional Persons Act, a federal act, which steps in when land use regulations conflict with the free exercise of religion.
The complaint spells out, “Castle Rock does not have the right to tell The Rock which vehicles can be parked in its private lot, how long they can be parked there, and whether someone can sit, stand, eat, or sleep in such vehicles.”
While Mike Polhemus says he hopes that the matter can be quietly settled between the church and town, the town itself has little to say. Other than a standard, “We don’t comment on pending litigation,” not much has been heard from Castle Rock officials.
Just how the matter will settle out still remains to be seen. The Rock Church continues in its mission to help the needy. It has both a food bank and provides clothing to those who need it. Those methods of helping out continue. But for now, the housing of homeless people isn’t one of them.
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Thank you, Russ and Tina! Well, as I heard a very wise economist colleague once utter, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Thanks again for the information. I can send them a small contribution to their legal fund, or food pantry, or however they choose to use it. 🙂
Reading about homeless folks living in RV’s, it causes me to wonder if RV’s are leading to or feeding the homeless problem? It surely seems RV’s are not the answer to solving homelessness.
A simple, short term solution, on private property no less, that already aides the needy. NIMBYS ?
Pretty sad.
Douglas County is one of the wealthiest counties in the entire country and the church is one of the only effective tools that I have seen to help fight the homelessness epidemic. Complete NIMBY situation. The County would be better served to work with the church and not against the church. An opportunity to lead, not hide. 🙏✌️
To whomever is tossing out the thumbs down, any suggestions of your own? The only point I am making is that we know 100% that government has been an epic fail on this, Federal, state and local governments. Maybe let the church have a run at it. Love and faith based compassion has been known to win the day for millenia. Just my opinion.
I don’t see any thumbs down on this post, Cancel.🤔 Have a good night. 😀 –Diane
Bill and I each had one so I canceled out his with a thumbs up and I think he may canceled mine out. Weird to get a thumbs down on those 3 comments. I generally could not care less about the thumbs but given the nature of our innocuous comments, it struck me as being a bit strange.
Wife is under the weather so I am up making us some middle of the night chamomile tea.
Get some rest Cancel, and best wishes to your wife
Thanks for the explanation, Cancel. Sorry to hear about your wife. I hope she feels better soon.🤞 Take care. 😀 –Diane
On the thumbs up or down, a thumbs down just takes away from the number of thumbs up.
Rv travel needs to show the true number of each.
Thanks, Kevin. I’ll pass that suggestion along to Kim, our IT dude. Have a great day. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Hi, Kevin. Here’s what Kim said about the thumbs up/thumbs down on the comments: “Actually, no idea why the comment button works like that but that’s pretty common. Reddit, for instance, does that–each down vote subtracts from the total and if you have more down votes than up votes it goes negative. So that’s the way our commenting plugin works. Not an option to see each total.” Maybe it’ll change sometime in the future, but I guess we’re stuck with this for now. Have a good afternoon/evening. 😀 —Diane
I’d rather have an “oldest first” option than a reply breakdown.
Amen !
Couldn’t agree more. I love seeing churches leading with their values of serving the needs of the poor and those in need. The homeless problem is severe and needs an all hands on deck approach. There’s a role for government, churches, other non-profits, and individuals in crafting compassionate solutions to help these folks who end up homeless often at no fault of their own. Often happens when they are priced out of affordable housing lived in for decades due to so-called, “gentrification”. Wouldn’t it be great if instead of backbiting and finger pointing, we could work on solving these type problems collectively?
100%.
NIMBY government stance. Government needs to be part of the solution, not the additional problem.
Rather than simply telling the church to stop, the local government should try to help the situation and maybe try to enlist other churches and benevolent organizations to assist. It’s not simply a government problem. It’s a social issue.
3 RV’s in a church parking lot is nothing…
They should be happy that busses full of homeless illegals from our current administrations open boarder policy don’t show up, so the community can join in the fun of seeing them defecate on your downtown sidewalks… Daily!
I’m curious to see how this plays out. In ‘Occupied California’ the illegals/homeless have more rights than tax paying American citizens do!
Tommy, we may be kindred spirits.
I moved from Golden CO to Maine 25 years ago. At that time Castle Rock was dominated by the Rich and Powerful.. Football, Hockey and Basketball players . I was there over the past Holiday Season and it had grown immensely. So not real sure what the wealth pattern is there. I suspect no one is interested in homeless campers in their neighborhood. I wouldn’t want it. Whose responsibility is it really to make sure homeless people have a proper place to sleep? It is their own responsibility and should not be put on others. My opinion.
Not everyone who is homeless got there on their own. Working class people get robbed of their homes everyday. I had a mobile home in Florida, I lived their for 7 years. I did all the maintenance that the landlord was supposed to deal with and when he passed, God rest his soul, his son and the rent collector short saled my home out from under me. I have a family and 3 dogs, I can’t find a place I can afford to rent now, a travel trailer is my only option. A little humanity and compassion would go a long way. The housing crisis is all over this da*n country, I don’t expect anything for free, I work for a living I will earn it, unlike the da*n migrants they keep letting into the country.
No shock that another affluent community does not want anything to do with homeless people or someone down on their luck. This is just more NIMBY attitude, the same as the people from Martha’s Vineyard who received a planeload or two of refugees from Texas. While I am not in favour of using refugees or asylum seekers to make a point, I did chuckle at how quickly this made national news, even here in Canada.
To clarify, the rich “summer people” had already departed Martha’s Vineyard. The locals stepped up, and fed and sheltered the baffled refugees (who had been told a pack of lies and were being used as human pawns in a political game). There’s plenty of NIMBYism to go around, but this was not a valid example.
It’s a perfect example.
To clarify, the national guard was brought in and moved them in under 24 hours to a military installation 60 miles away.
What was the lie? Told them it was a wealthy community that welcomes ilegals with open arms. That even Obama lives there. The village has a sign at the arrival dock that says “We welcome all people ” and “No one is illegal here”.
“Sanctuary City”….. right up until illegals actually start arriving looking for sanctuary.
I laughed for hours at the “stunt” Leonard. Priceless. Yes, it was a stunt. An effective stunt, but a stunt nonetheless. Kinda caught the virtuous Islanders off guard. The interviews were priceless. “We don’t have room” was the best. One charter planeload from Florida. Priceless, Still laughing at the duplicity.
Just curious, but what do they do for fresh water and sewage? Also, is there some sort of incentive program to assist them from becoming permanent parking lot residents?