Editorial: Faith, Immanuel need help with shelter

The good people at Immanuel Shelter and Faith United Methodist Church are trying to address a nagging need: the persistent problem of homelessness and its associated impacts on individual lives. They are doing what people living in cooperative society do to help maintain the stability that allows civilizations to move forward.

The groups purchased property at Belltown - on an island of land between Route 9 and Beaver Dam Road - where John Wesley United Methodist Church for decades ministered to communal and spiritual needs. With property and the existing structure as a starting point, they proposed establishment of a professionally managed homeless facility where the most unfortunate could find temporary shelter from the elements.

It would also be a place where people could take first steps toward reversing their misfortunes: addressing potential mental health issues, eating a few meals to gain strength, acquiring decent clothing, finding a job and permanent housing to help them rejoin society’s productive ranks.

Immanuel and Faith together presented an enlightened and well-thought-out plan. Predictably, the plan met resistance from concerned people in the neighborhood.

Delaware courts, addressing a legal action to stop the initiative, to no one’s surprise ruled that the proposed facility doesn’t mean the definition of a tourist home  - a permitted use where the former church property is located. The opinion said the only way for the shelter to become a permitted use would be for the county to add zoning language allowing such facilities as a special-exception use. That would be a struggle, of course, with hearings. But hearings help identify specific concerns and offer opportunities to address them responsibly.

The proposed location, along a public transportation route, is a good one. The success of the initiative will ultimately stand on its ability to demonstrate that it only contributes - without detracting at all - to the general health, safety and public welfare of the community. The community at large stands to gain by addressing and containing this problem, and it should help Faith and Immanuel find an acceptable solution.