Squatters or Souls? : Pastor Vows to Defy City Order to Evict Homeless From Church Parking Lot

The laws of God and man are set to collide behind the closed doors of City Hall today, and both sides will be quoting chapter and verse.

To Wiley S. Drake, pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church, who has been harboring about 30 homeless people on church grounds in defiance of city officials all summer, the issue is as simple as Deuteronomy 15:7, which instructs: “Thou shalt not harden thine heart.”

But for Martin Mayer, the city prosecutor who is threatening to jail or fine Drake for violating the town’s anti-camping ordinance, the matter comes down to Buena Park Municipal Code 15.40.020, designed to prevent homeless people from setting up camps in residential neighborhoods.

Today’s clash will likely determine the fate of Drake and his homeless flock, who stay at the modest church complex for months at a time, receiving meals and spiritual guidance, kicking drug habits and sleeping in trailers, vans, cars or even on the church’s dirt parking lot.

At 3 p.m. today, city officials, who repeatedly threatened to file criminal misdemeanor charges against the pastor, will issue what they say is an ultimatum: Dismantle the homeless camp or face as much as $1,000 in fines and up to 6 months in jail. Since July, officials have argued that the church’s homeless colony violates local camping ordinances and more than half a dozen other building and safety codes.

Drake, an unsuccessful candidate for Buena Park City Council two years ago, vows he will not stop assisting the homeless. Aiding his “poor brethren” is a moral imperative established by the Bible that clearly outweighs secular law, Drake said.

“It’s time for the church to practice what it preaches,” said Drake, 52, who has been First Southern Baptist’s pastor for 10 years. “If we don’t, there comes with it a curse in this life and the next.”

Although he is moving quickly to correct minor safety and code violations cited by city officials, Drake says he will go to jail before turning his back on the homeless.

“We will not kick people off our grounds so long as they are not breaking any other laws,” said Drake, who expels anyone caught using drugs--or even cigarettes--on church grounds. “That’s nonnegotiable.”

Few will watch the showdown with more interest than the homeless men, women and children who live on the church’s grounds. To James, a 35-year-old unemployed construction worker, the two months he has spent at the church has been a vital step toward rejoining society.

“If I wasn’t here,” said the father of two, as he scrubbed out a plastic juice bin, “I would be out on the streets doing crazy stuff. Inside here I get the word of God, and now I’m waiting to hear about a job at a [department store.]”

“I’ve got hope again,” he added.

Like the other homeless people at the church, James’ day begins around 7 a.m. At that time, the homeless, who sleep on the back edge of the parking lot, roll up their sleeping bags and wash up for breakfast, which is served promptly at 8 a.m. Every person pitches in with the preparation, serving and clean up of meals served each day in the church dining room.

Between meals, the homeless, who are subject to Drake’s searches for drugs at any time, attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings or Bible study classes on site. The church also provides the homeless with job referrals from surrounding cities and businesses.

“People have a lot of misconceptions about homeless people,” said a 46-year-old man, who would not give his name, but said he has lived on the streets for three years. “They see stereotypes. They see dirt, they see criminals, they see drunks. Well, I’m none of those things. I’m just homeless.”

The controversy has angered some City Council members who charge Drake is overly fond of self-aggrandizing theatrics and not motivated by altruism. During this summer’s wrangling, Drake brought the homeless to testify at council meetings and also called upon his 125-member congregation to pray for the council’s eternal damnation.

“There are 300 to 400 places of worship in Orange County,” said Councilman Donald L. Bone. “Isn’t it strange that out of all these churches, there is only one in a confrontational mode?

“To me the issue is not about man’s law vs. God’s law,” he added. “It is an issue where there are alternative ways of helping the poor without running afoul of the law.”

*

While lauding Drake’s charitable goals, city officials contend the church’s homeless population is disturbing the nearby community. Church neighbors have complained that the homeless urinate and defecate in public, said Rick Warsinski, Buena Park’s acting administrative services director.

Small groups of homeless people who smoke cigarettes just off church property on city sidewalks are frightening some senior citizens who pass by on the way to a nearby senior center, city officials contend.

By charging Drake with a violation of the city’s anti-camping ordinance, Mayer hopes to drive the homeless from church grounds without having to fine or jail the pastor.

It’s unclear how Drake’s moral cause will fare in the courts. Though the Bible may be his rock, Drake and his attorneys will have to build a strong case upon secular law to succeed.

First, they plan to attack the city’s charges as being unclear. For instance, the city’s anti-camping ordinance seems to ban recreational camping, but because the church’s homeless have access to showers and rest rooms, those points may not apply, said Aldore Clarambeau, one of three attorneys representing Drake.

“We’ve really not been able to determine exactly what the city is trying to restrict in terms of camping,” he said. “It’s so vague and ambiguous.”

Drake’s attorneys then will challenge the city’s actions on constitutional grounds, arguing the city has no right to “tell the church how to minister to its homeless,” added Clarambeau.

*

As some churches nationwide have already done, Drake’s attorneys will invoke the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was signed by President Clinton in 1993. The legislation seeks to strengthen constitutional protections afforded churches and groups who claim they are exercising religious freedom.

But Assistant City Prosecutor Gregory P. Palmer dismisses Drake’s legal strategies as “ridiculous.” Drake can aid the homeless, even allow them a place to sleep, said Palmer, but he must build a city-approved structure to do so.

“He is flouting the law,” Palmer said. “If he is going to do what he is doing, he’s got to comply with the same laws we do.”

Legal experts, however, point out interpretations of the Freedom Restoration Act have varied greatly, and Drake’s success may hinge more on neighborhood realities than lofty constitutional ideals.

“I think it’s a good moral claim, but these types of cases tend to be fact-specific,” said Robert Boston, spokesman for the Washington D.C.-based watchdog group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “If it’s causing disruption in the neighborhood, they might not be successful.”

To Drake, the legal niceties matter little. He promises to continue working with the homeless until the city hauls him off to jail.

“Our nation is in dire stress in part because the churches by and large have said feeding the homeless, clothing the homeless, housing the homeless is not their job, but the state’s job,” he said. “That’s just not true.”