BRUNSWICK, Ga. – The Justice Department announced that it filed a lawsuit alleging the city of Brunswick, Georgia for closing a faith-based resource center for those experiencing homelessness.
RELATED: The Well shelter in Brunswick is partially reopening
The DOJ said the city’s attempted closure of The Well, which is associated with the United Methodist Church, violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Person’s Act (RLUIPA), a federal law that protects religious institutions from burdensome or discriminatory land use regulations.
“Federal law protects the right of religious groups such as The Well to use their land to help others,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said. “This division will continue to vindicate the rights of groups to exercise their religion and fight local land use laws that unlawfully restrict those rights.”
The lawsuit alleges that since 2014, The Well has offered showers, laundry, meals, and other services to the unhoused.
Officials said the city touted The Well’s services as part of the city’s efforts to reduce and end homelessness, but the city later tried to close it and blamed it for unrelated criminal activity in Brunswick.
In April 2023, The Well was forced to close for 65 days due to the incidents in the area.
It reopened in July of the same year and has since then helped 450 people.
Staff said about 250 of those people have moved on and found housing on their own or with a family member or friend and over 180 people have received resource management.
Jenna Kennedy, the FaithWorks Minister of Operations talked about the mission of The Well.
“The biggest thing is we want there to be a same place that our guests can go, to feel like they are loved, to be treated with dignity and respect,” Kennedy said.
The Well adopted safety and security measures suggested by the Brunswick Police Department, but the city filed a lawsuit in state court seeking to close it.
“We have a locked door at all times you have to be buzzed in by our security guard,” Kennedy said “We have a new sign-in system where every guest has to sign in every time they come in, it will flag anyone who has not been approved to be in the building immediately, so our staff will know to not allow them inside.”
The complaint alleges the attempted closure burdens The Well’s religious exercise and that the city lacks a compelling interest and has not employed the least restrictive means of enforcing its purported interest.
News4JAX reached out to the city of Brunswick for comment on the lawsuit.