Inviting a confrontation with city officials, the senior pastor at a venerable Long Beach church vowed Friday to defy a prosecutor's order that he block homeless people from sleeping on the steps and grounds of his church.
Failure to disperse the 15 to 20 people who camp between the sidewalk and the First Congregational Church of Long Beach's walls may result in a fine of $1,000 a day, Deputy City Prosecutor Sayge Castillo warned in a recent letter.
Leaning back in a couch in his church office Friday, Senior Pastor Jerald Stinson shook his head and said, "The city's threats are ludicrous. We're not going to do what they want us to do. Allowing these people to sleep on our property is, for us, a religious act."
Stinson said his church, a Long Beach historic landmark with a history of social activism, has found legal support for its actions in a federal court ruling that allowed a New York City parish to shelter homeless people outdoors.
In 2002, a federal appeals court upheld the right of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Midtown Manhattan to allow about 20 homeless people to sleep on its steps without fear of being rousted by police.
The three-judge panel determined that the church was helping the needy out of a religious belief and thus protected by the 1st Amendment.
That ruling is not a binding precedent in California, but Stinson said he hoped it would offer guidance.
"The ACLU took up the New York City church's case," he said, "and I would hope they take our case as well." Meanwhile, he said, "We're thinking about installing a Porta Potty outside for the homeless who sleep here each night."
In a city that has an estimated 6,000 homeless people, Stinson's resolve has won the support of other Long Beach social activists, including Martha Long, director of the MHA Village, a program of the nonprofit National Mental Health Assn. of Greater Los Angeles.
"I was so tickled by what Jerry is doing I wrote him a letter," she said. "I think he's a man of courage because he's pushing back."
City Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal, whose district includes the church, would not go that far in an interview Friday. "Until this city has enough services and housing for people who cannot take care of themselves," she said, "I believe the prosecutor should work on mediating the problem rather than threatening a fine."
For some, the issue is more complicated, fusing sympathy for those in distress with discomfort at the gathering around the church.
