BRYAN, Ohio — A pastor in Williams County is facing charges. It has been an ongoing situation WTOL 11 has been covering between the city of Bryan and Dad's Place involving city codes and the homeless.
The most recent issue comes as the city cited Dad's Place for fire code violations.
The city says it's an issue of safety, but the church argues it's a targeted attack on its mission to help people.
At a Thursday news conference, Jeremy Dys, senior counsel representing Dad's Place said, "Mayor Schlade, are you prepared to spend a million dollars of taxpayer money?"
Dys represents Dad's Place and its pastor, Chris Avell, who says he's housing the spiritually homeless despite the fines and charges for violating city code.
"We're not here to play games. We're here to be the church of Jesus Christ, the church that God has called us to be," Avell said. "This is what we must do. This is a matter of faith."
"I think he started on a path of kindness and caring and compassion," Bryan Mayor Carrie Schlade said. "I think it's imploded into something that's outside of what he can handle."
Schlade doesn't argue Avell's heart is in the right place. She said the issue is safety.
"They have families in there that are congregating with adult men, two of them from police records from my understanding are sexual predators," Schlade said.
Dys addressed the claim.
"Dad's Place confronted the responsible individual for this crime," Dys said. "Confronted him as a pastor on the moral aspects of that but also said there is a legal obligation here as well, walked with him to the police station for that person to turn them self in."
Dys says Dad's Place is being targeted, unjustly.
"Last Wednesday, the fire marshal came in, walked into the building without any announcement and after that, without going to the court, issued a citation enforcing the fire codes of Bryan, Ohio," Dys said.
Schlade said this isn't about punishing Dad's House, it's about finding the best solution for local unhoused individuals.
"We have set up a homeless coalition to identify the amount of homeless folks that are in this county to try and find a solution," Schlade said. "And I've had those meetings with social services groups and our local church leaders so this is not a not-in-my-backyard situation by any means."
The citations against Dad's Place carry a $1,000 fine each day they go unfixed, but the fines are on hold until the next court hearing on May 13.