An Ohio pastor was punished for opening his church to the homeless. He deserves it.

Rev. Chris Avell's good intentions may be putting those people in harm's way

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There’s a story making the rounds about a Christian pastor in Ohio who decided to house homeless people inside his church because they had nowhere else to go… only to be charged with 18 zoning violations by the city of Bryan, just outside Toledo.

Rev. Chris Avell pleaded not guilty to all of the charges earlier this month.

Rev. Chris Avell (screenshot via WTOL 11)

At a time when the weather in the midwest has been freezing even more than usual, it seems downright cruel to punish a pastor for trying to help the less fortunate. After all, isn’t that what Christians ought to be doing? Isn’t that Jesus-like? How is he the bad guy here?!

“What Avell did seemed a humane no-brainer,” said an opinion piece in the Columbus Dispatch. “Pastor Faces Charges For Giving The Homeless A Place To Sleep,” reads the headline at Above the Law.

Those are fair points. Homelessness really is a big problem in our country. Cities as small as Bryan and as large as San Francisco have struggled to deal with the issue.

But whenever a right-wing legal group like First Liberty takes up a cause, and the pastor in question does a full media blitz on conservative propaganda outlets, it’s at least worth taking a closer look at why the city is pursuing him before rushing to his defense.

That starts by talking about the church.

“Dad’s Place” isn’t really a church. It’s technically a video arcade called “Crane N Able's Mini Claw Mania”—clever name!—which is why it was allowed to open up inside a business district. In 2020, Avell requested permission to set up a church inside the building and the city gave it to him with the understanding that he would abide by the city’s zoning laws.

(Side note: The video arcade has one review on Google and it’s a perfect five-star rating… from Chris Avell.)

Most news stories about the situation focus on the technical rule that Avell broke: Because his church is located in a business district, residential use on the first floor is prohibited. That means people are not supposed to eat, wash their clothing, or sleep there.

Yet when the city’s Fire Chief did an inspection of his “church” on November 21, he found 18 separate violations… which led to the criminal charges.

But, you might respond, who cares?! These people need a place to stay! It’s bitterly cold outside! And even though there’s a homeless shelter next door to the church, it doesn’t have enough space to take in everyone who needs help!

Those might be fair arguments. They’re certainly compassionate. But what many articles are missing is that city officials aren’t going after Avell because he’s helping the homeless. They’re going after him because he’s literally putting the lives of those homeless people in danger.

It’s the same reason a church can’t just open up a soup kitchen on a whim. There are local regulations that need to be followed in order to make sure everything’s safe. As long as those rules are obeyed, more power to the organizations that do it!

Now consider what the Bryan Fire Chief discovered last November during an inspection of Dad’s Place:

… Several of these violations were serious and potentially endanger the lives and safety of those in the building. Some of the serious violations included improper installation of laundry facilities, inadequate or unsafe exit areas, LP cylinder for gas grill improperly placed inside the building, an unpermitted gas dryer installed with impermissible plastic duct outside Ohio Mechanical Code guidelines, no permitted and approved kitchen hood over the stove, and limited ventilation. Immediate temporary solutions were implemented to address the most serious fire hazards and the Fire Chief

The EXIT signs weren’t clear.

There was no evidence that the carbon monoxide and smoke detectors were tested regularly.

There was a “gas leak due to improper installation of the unapproved gas dryer.” (The city and a local natural gas provider soon corrected this problem.)

Imagine if there was an actual emergency in the building. A place like this would jeopardize the lives of the people inside because of these kinds of deficiencies. The Fire Chief gave Avell well over a month to fix the most serious of these problems, but follow-up checks on January 9 and 16 found “5 violations that had not been properly corrected.” Furthermore, on January 16, the Fire Chief found 20 people sleeping in cots or on the floor of the building.

The Police Chief later said Avell was only charged with the zoning violations after a “reasonable amount of time was given for both the tenant and property owner to fix the issues. Due to the safety of all involved the city moved forward with filing charges.”

That. Makes. Sense.

Avell had plenty of time to correct these safety concerns and chose not to, which means he’s literally putting lives in danger by treating his business as a shelter.

The bottom line is that while Avell may have had the best of intentions, the people he took in were arguably in more danger at his church than they would have been in a shelter that had proper oversight… like Sanctuary Homeless Shelter next door:

There’s a sign for “Dad’s Church” in the window on the left side. The Sanctuary shelter is on the right. (Image via Google Maps)

Sanctuary “fully complies with the zoning code and fire code,” according to the city, and Bryan officials said they were in contact with the shelter about taking in the additional people “coming to Dad’s Place.” (First Liberty claims the Sanctuary shelter is on Avell’s side.)

The city has also suggested alternative places that Avell could set up shop so that his church could function as a homeless shelter—in a way that’s both safe and legal. But Avell has rejected all those options. (First Liberty claims Avell is in an ideal spot, able to take in overflow at the shelter and situated near a medical clinic.)

None of that even touches on another problem: Since May of 2023, the city says it has received calls about “inappropriate activity” at Dad’s Place concerning “criminal mischief, trespassing, overdose, larceny, harassment, disturbing the peace and sexual assault.”

The city’s press release also includes documentation that Avell was taking in a sex offender—which arguably puts the other people inside the building in harm’s way.

Ultimately, the city is simply trying to protect people. There are legitimate criticisms to make about whether officials are doing enough to house the homeless—and we should absolutely have those discussions!—but the charges against Avell are warranted.

If he wants to run a homeless shelter, then he has an obligation to make sure it’s run properly and safely for the sake of everyone he’s taking in—after all, this isn’t just something he did on one cold night. It’s been several weeks. The longer he neglects to take safety precautions, the more of a chance there is for something to go horribly wrong.

The upside to Avell’s fight is that it could pressure the city to build another shelter or take steps towards creating affordable housing. It’s hard to sympathize with his “good trouble,” though, when he’s opening defying sensible guidelines while creating new hazards for the homeless. His noble cause will only make for a good headline until another tragedy strikes due to his own negligence.

None of that will stop conservative attorneys like First Liberty’s Jeremy Dys from pretending this is Christian persecution. There’s too much fundraising to do off the claim that a secular government is going after a Christian pastor who just wanted to help the least of these. In fact, when a reporter from HuffPost raised valid questions about the gas leak and fire code violations, Dys refused to acknowledge the problems:

Dys on Friday said the city’s statement is “filled with half-truths and malicious innuendo designed to vilify the most desperate and downtrodden in their community.”

When earlier asked about the fire code violations, he dismissed them as a form of “lawfare harassment” against the church. Each time police visited, Dys said, they presented new “nit-picky” issues that he believes were designed by law enforcement to be impossible to keep up with.

Bullshit. The city didn’t make up new rules just to go after some pastor. The “nit-picky” rules involve things like making sure buildings have properly functioning smoke detectors.

Just because this is a church (inside a video arcade) doesn’t mean it’s exempt from fire codes. For the sake of the people they’re supposedly trying to help, First Liberty would be far better off fixing the violations than complaining about their enforcement. But that wouldn’t make for nearly as good a press release… which means the persecution claims aren’t going to stop anytime soon.

***UPDATE***: First Liberty has now sued the city of Bryan on behalf of the video arcade church.

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