A Catholic charity group sued the town of Barnstable, Mass., after officials rejected its claim that operating a homeless shelter is a religious use, a ruling that has blocked the relocation of its existing 50-bed shelter to a larger facility.
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fall River filed the lawsuit on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, alleging that the Barnstable Zoning Board of Appeals violated federal and state religious-liberty protections when it overturned a building commissioner’s determination that the shelter qualified as a protected religious use.
The dispute centers on the Massachusetts Dover Amendment, which generally prohibits local zoning laws from restricting the use of land or structures for religious purposes, subject to certain reasonable regulations.
Catholic Charities has operated St. Joseph’s House, a 50-bed emergency shelter at 77 Winter St. in Hyannis, the largest village in Barnstable, since 2016. The charity and the Housing Assistance Corporation, which owns the property, are seeking to move the shelter to a larger, more accessible facility on West Main Street. The new location would include an overnight shelter, a daytime program and a health clinic.
In April, Barnstable Building Commissioner Brian Florence determined that the shelter’s operation at the new site was protected under the Dover Amendment. A local resident appealed, and the Zoning Board of Appeals voted 4-1 in July to overturn the determination, according to the lawsuit.
The board said that “there needs to be an overt religious act” and that “it can’t be only that the motivation is religious,” according to the complaint.
Catholic Charities argues that the board improperly discounted the religious nature of its work. The complaint says that sheltering homeless people is a Catholic religious obligation and one of the Corporal Works of Mercy.
The lawsuit opens with a passage from the Gospel of Matthew: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Father Thomas Washburn told the zoning board that Catholic Charities operates the shelter “because Christ commanded us to do it,” according to the complaint.
“Operating a homeless shelter is not separate from our religious mission,” he said. “It is one of the most important and central ways that we fulfill it.”
Catholic Charities does not require shelter guests to convert to Catholicism or participate in worship. The organization argues that the absence of such activities does not make the shelter’s operation any less religious because providing shelter to people in need is itself an expression of Catholic faith.
The lawsuit alleges violations of the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the First and 14th Amendments, the Massachusetts Constitution and the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act.
Catholic Charities is asking the court to declare the shelter a protected religious use and allow the relocation to proceed. It is also seeking damages and attorneys’ fees.
