OCEAN CITY, Md. - A dispute between the Town of Ocean City and St. Paul’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church is escalating after the town ordered the church to stop allowing people to sleep overnight inside one of its buildings.
The town issued a zoning violation last week ordering St. Paul’s to stop using Dewees Hall for overnight sleeping by June 8. Town officials say the church changed the use of the building without going through the required approval process.
The church says it will not comply.
Rev. Jill Williams, rector of St. Paul’s by-the-Sea, said the church opened its indoor shelter, Shelter By-the-Sea, on March 31 after the town raised concerns about people sleeping in tents outside on church property.
Williams said the church moved people indoors to provide a safer and more dignified place to sleep.
“We will not be changing anything,” Williams said. “And I don’t honestly know, they have not expressed anything as far as what their plan would be then to do with 30 individuals every night who have no place to go.”
In a media release sent Tuesday, St. Paul’s said Shelter By-the-Sea has provided 892 overnight stays in 42 nights of operation and is averaging 27 guests per night. The church described the shelter as low-barrier, meaning people are not required to show identification, be sober, have a job or participate in programs as a condition of receiving help.
The church also said it has received referrals from the Homeless Outreach Team, health care workers and law enforcement officers seeking safe placement for people with nowhere else to go.
Williams said the shelter is part of the church’s religious mission.
“It is our mission to help the unhoused of Ocean City,” Williams said. “There is no reason to put them back out on the streets.”
Ocean City officials say the issue is not the church’s mission, but whether the building can legally and safely be used as overnight sleeping quarters.
City Manager Terry McGean said any building in town that undergoes a change in use must go through an approval process. He said that process is designed to address zoning, building safety, occupancy, plumbing and other code requirements.
“Really, our primary goal is to make sure that any facility is operating safe and code compliant,” McGean said. “And that’s our primary concern and always our top concern.”
McGean said the church should come to the town through the site plan approval process and work with a design professional to determine whether the use can be allowed legally and safely.
“We would love to work with them to determine whether this can be done legally and safely,” McGean said. “But there’s an approval process for that.”
According to McGean, the town has had to react after changes were made at the church, first when tents appeared outside and later when the town learned people had been moved indoors.
Williams said the church’s attorney has responded to the town, arguing the shelter is protected under federal law governing religious land use. She said the church is prepared to fight the issue in federal court if necessary and will not pay fines.
Ocean City’s notice says the church must stop overnight sleeping inside Dewees Hall by June 8 at 9 a.m. If the church does not comply, it could face municipal infractions, with each day considered a separate violation.
Williams said the church is willing to accept support from the town, but not an order to close the shelter.
“We answer to a higher authority,” Williams said. “And so we don’t have to bend. We don’t have to bend, and we won’t.”