{"id":23426,"date":"2025-02-19T18:53:43","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T01:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montrose-judge-denies-citys-request-to-clear-churchs-unhoused-camp\/"},"modified":"2025-02-20T01:53:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T01:53:43","slug":"montrose-judge-denies-citys-request-to-clear-churchs-unhoused-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montrose-judge-denies-citys-request-to-clear-churchs-unhoused-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Montrose judge denies city\u2019s request to clear church\u2019s unhoused camp"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Rev. Kevin Young, right, walks down the steps of the Elks Civic Building in Montrose where municipal court is held on Wednesday. (Tom Hesse\/CPR News)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

At a hearing in Montrose, on Wednesday, Municipal Court Judge Erin Maxwell rejected a city request for an emergency abatement on a camp of unhoused residents sitting on Montrose United Methodist Church grounds. The abatement would have permitted city authorities to go onto private property to potentially clear the camp, which has drawn controversy in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the fire department \u2013 the experts in this case \u2013 are willing to give the church time in this matter, so will the court,\u201d Maxwell said, scheduling a review of the situation in two weeks.<\/p>\n

At issue for the abatement hearing was a claim by the city that public health, safety and fire code issues had grown to a point that the city needed emergency authority to intervene. Maxwell heard testimony from fire and health officials and said, while testimony demonstrated there were problems, current concerns did not constitute an emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that the church is making progress,\u201d Maxwell said, noting that United Methodist was found in violation of six fire codes on first inspection and only three on a follow-up.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s abatement request is just one step in a lengthy dispute over the camp, which grew significantly beginning in December and now houses around 20 people, all of whom are required to sign a behavior agreement with the church before camping there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy that they\u2019re not going to come and move everybody out of there today,\u201d the Rev. Kevin Young said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Rev. Kevin Young of the Montrose United Methodist Church stands in front of the United Methodist Church on Jan. 30. (Tom Hesse\/CPR News file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Wednesday\u2019s hearing exceeded four hours, including more than 10 witnesses and dueling testimony over photographs of the camp. The city suggested the camp had grown in size, grown more disorderly and grown more dangerous. Meanwhile, the defense argued the camp was becoming more organized and that the church was working with the city fire marshal to alleviate any concerns.<\/p>\n

John Fleming, the defense attorney for Young and the church, said the city\u2019s actions amounted to using ordinances \u201crather than attacking the church itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, it\u2019s the city\u2019s belief that it\u2019s more important to make things look nice than it is to help those who need help,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Rev. Kevin Young, left, speaks with supporters outside the Elks Civic Building in Montrose where municipal court cases are heard on Feb. 13. (Tom Hesse\/CPR News file)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Montrose City Attorney Chris Dowsey said code violations alone do not prompt emergency abatement requests and that the city\u2019s concerns were warranted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn totality, this is not just a minor zoning infraction, it has come to an emergency,\u201d Dowsey said.<\/p>\n

During the city\u2019s presentation, Dowsey called on multiple law enforcement officers and neighboring businesses to argue the camp was making the area unsafe.<\/p>\n

Testimony included descriptions of overflowing trash cans, a man who had intimidated nearby employees \u2013 including with sexually suggestive statements \u2013 as well as a nonfatal drug overdose.<\/p>\n

Fleming argued the church had remedied the trash issue by obtaining a second dumpster, that the man accused of intimidating the employees was not a resident of the camp \u2013 and in fact, had been removed by police from church property \u2013 and that the person who overdosed was given Narcan and may not have received help had he been alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you allow the abatement to clear the camp, it would unreasonably interfere with the use of that private property for 20 people,\u201d Fleming said, comparing it to the two business owners who spoke.<\/p>\n

First things first<\/div>\n

While the court was only considering if the issue required emergency action, discussion of the church\u2019s defense for the citation violations did arise several times. Fleming argued the city\u2019s code enforcement cannot interfere with the church\u2019s First Amendment rights \u2013 including their exercise of religion which involves helping the unhoused.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would feel unbelievable conflict inside ourselves because, in our own minds, we are following the most fundamental teachings of Jesus,\u201d Pastor Young told the court.<\/p>\n

The First Amendment conversation drew some objections from the city since they were not the focus of the hearing.<\/p>\n

City citations related to the unhoused camp have not yet been ruled on by the court. However, during a discussion about the relevancy of First Amendment questions, Maxwell did remark that Fleming\u2019s argument could have merit in future hearings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you\u2019re making what will be a very good argument,\u201d Maxwell said.<\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20 people have been living at United Methodist Church property<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2281,133,28,611],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-church-and-state-relations","tag-courts","tag-headlines","tag-homelessness"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23426"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}