Federal prosecutors Wednesday announced they were intervening in a lawsuit a nonprofit serving the homeless filed against the city of Santa Ana alleging the city was using code enforcement to make it impossible to accomplish its mission.
Micah’s Way sued in January saying its faith-based mission to feed the needy was being impeded by the city’s denial of an occupancy certificate under its zoning ordinance.
“We did not solicit them — they got involved on their own,” Micah’s Way attorney Ed Connor told City News Service.
Connor said he was not aware the Justice Department had a civil rights division that could get involved in the nonprofit’s lawsuit.
“It’s very refreshing to see them coming in and supporting our decision and sending a message to the city that you’re way out of line here, and it’s time to sit up and take notice that you’re flagrantly violating (the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000), and you need to come into compliance here,” said Connor.
The city has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for June 5 before U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who has presided over multiple homeless lawsuits in the county and steered cities in northern and central Orange County into a settlement that cleared out homeless encampments and led to more shelters for local transients.
The city issued a statement about the Department of Justice’s intervening in the case:
“The City of Santa Ana fully supports the expression of religious beliefs as well as helping those in need, as shown by the operation of our 200-bed homeless navigation center, hosting the County of Orange’s homeless shelter, and funding homeless outreach teams. In this case, however, Micah’s Way has been using its administrative office to distribute food in an area where this activity isn’t permitted. This has impacted the adjacent residential neighborhood, resulting in multiple complaints from residents. Micah’s Way has not shown that the city has placed a substantial burden on its religious exercise.”
City officials have long complained before Carter that Santa Ana is being called on to shoulder most of the burden of homelessness in the county.
Micah’s Way’s attorneys are arguing that part of an array of services the religious charity provides for the homeless at 1517 E. 4th St. is food and drinks when they come in to pick up mail or charge up a phone, among other necessities. Nourishing the poor is a core value of Christianity, the attorneys said.
Santa Ana officials argued in its motion to dismiss that offering food and drinks to the homeless is not a religious exercise and that the city’s ordinance did not impede the nonprofit from exercising its religious rights.
But Connor told City News Service the city has shifted its argument made in an administrative hearing last year before retired Orange County Superior Court Judge David Chaffee, who sided with Micah’s Way on the religious law claims.
Connor argued the city is barred by law to appeal something already decided in another court and to make a different argument than it made in another legal proceeding.
“It’s ironic and hypocritical,” Connor said.
Connor said city officials “got together to run Micah’s Way out of town,” and that was shown in emails and other evidence that came out of the administrative hearing the city agreed to participate in last year.
“I’m hoping the city will take note that their actions and misconduct is so egregious it has now drawn the Department of Justice into the case,” Connor said. “I would think that would cause anyone some cause for concern … Even though they lost an administrative hearing and ignored that maybe this time they’ll get the message.”
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said, “Religious groups should be entitled to exercise their religion by providing charitable services based in their religious beliefs. Our office firmly opposes actions that block religious groups from carrying out their spiritual mission to help others in need.”
“Discriminatory barriers and land use restrictions against faith-based organizations is unlawful,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
”Many faith-based organizations across the country are on the front lines serving the needs of people experiencing homelessness. The Justice Department is committed to enforcing federal civil rights laws to ensure that all religious groups can freely exercise their religious beliefs.”