Colorado church sues Castle Rock over right to temporarily shelter homeless

By Jennifer McRae

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    CASTLE ROCK, Colorado (KCNC) — The First Liberty Institute filed a federal lawsuit against the Town of Castle Rock on Tuesday. This after town officials sought to shut down the temporary, emergency shelter ministry of “The Rock.”

The Rock is a church that had offered temporary and emergency shelter for those who have suddenly become unhoused.

CBS News Colorado first covered the story when the town said the church’s use of RVs to shelter the homeless was a zoning violation. Since 2019, the church has given shelter to the homeless in two RVs on the back side of their 54-acre property. At that time, a representative from the town declined to be interviewed by CBS News Colorado.

In the lawsuit, the church claims that the town mandated the church stop its efforts to offer temporary and emergency shelter, interfered with its ability to serve as a Red Cross emergency shelter and retaliated against the church by threatening the business license of a coffee service located in the church.

“Churches that take action to care for the homeless should be encouraged and affirmed, not opposed and retaliated against,” said First Liberty Senior Counsel Jeremy Dys in a statement. “It’s not enough for the town to try to stop this church from using its property to provide temporary shelter to displaced single moms and their children. The town is also trying to prevent the church from partnering with the Red Cross in times of emergency.”

As of September 2023, after years of back and forth with the church, the Town of Castle Rock officially determined the use of RVs as temporary shelters to be a zoning violation.

According to the church, “the Town of Castle Rock, Colorado, has no emergency or temporary shelters within town limits for individuals suddenly without a safe home. Along with providing food, clothes, shoes, financial assistance, and small kitchen items, The Rock works with individuals displaced due to life circumstances to provide a temporary place of shelter in one trailer and one RV parked on the back of the church’s property – more than 400 feet from any resident property.”

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