Rutherford Institute Urges Localities Not To Penalize Compassion by Placing Roadblocks Before Churches Ministering to the Homeless

LOUISA, Va. — For centuries, churches have cared for “the least of these” by feeding the hungry, clothing the poor and sheltering those with nowhere else to go. For many congregations, doing so is an expression of faith protected by the First Amendment. Yet government officials are increasingly passing laws that make it harder for the homeless to survive in public spaces—while regulating, restricting or even penalizing churches, religious charities and nonprofits that attempt to help.

Although the government has a legitimate role in protecting public health and safety and may enforce reasonable building and fire regulations, The Rutherford Institute warns that when zoning requirements become so burdensome that churches are discouraged from carrying out their religious mission, government crosses an important constitutional line. When temperatures fall below freezing, that constitutional line can become the difference between someone finding shelter and someone spending the night in life-threatening cold.

“We’ve seen a disturbing national push to criminalize homelessness and penalize those who try to help, but compassion should not require a permit,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “Churches and other religious institutions should not have to choose between obeying God and complying with unnecessary government paperwork before offering someone a warm place to sleep on a freezing night.”

Across the country, government officials are increasingly responding to homelessness not by encouraging private acts of charity, but by regulating, displacing or criminalizing homeless people and burdening the churches, charities and volunteers willing to help them.

By requiring churches to obtain government approval before answering their religious calling, Rutherford Institute attorneys warn that Louisa County risks aligning itself with that troubling national trend. The proposed zoning amendment being considered by the Louisa County Board of Supervisors would classify “humanitarian shelters” as facilities providing temporary shelter and basic services without leases or occupancy agreements. Property owners—including churches—would then be required to secure a conditional use permit by meeting multiple operational requirements before they can answer God’s call to help the less fortunate by opening their doors to homeless men, women and families on cold winter nights.

Rutherford Institute attorneys warn that requiring churches to obtain government permission before offering temporary shelter to those in need creates a chilling effect and could place unconstitutional roadblocks in the way of churches exercising their First Amendment rights.

In a letter to the Louisa County Board of Supervisors, Institute attorneys explained that churches already appear to be permitted under the County’s existing ordinances to provide temporary overnight shelter without obtaining a conditional use permit (CUP). The County’s definition of religious assembly allows churches to operate day cares and day care centers that may provide care, protection and guidance to adults for less than a full 24-hour period. The Institute is therefore asking the Board to at least clarify that churches and other organizations already permitted to provide such care do not need an additional CUP when individuals are sheltered temporarily and do not remain continuously for a full 24-hour period.

Constitutional and statutory protections require governments to accommodate religious exercise (i.e., provide religious practices with “favored treatment,” as the U.S. Supreme Court has stated)—not burden it. Yet Institute attorneys warn that imposing a land use or zoning regulation which substantially burdens a person’s or organization’s religious exercise could violate laws like the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and the Virginia Religious Freedom Restoration Act even if it is a neutral rule which is generally applicable to all.

Last year, The Rutherford Institute wrote to the Louisa County Planning Commission, which approved the proposed ordinance and sent it to the Board of Supervisors. In outlining three major concerns with the proposed amendment, the Institute is calling on Louisa County to revise the proposed ordinance to explicitly recognize that “religious assembly” use encompasses temporary humanitarian shelter, and to not require a CUP for churches operating within that scope. At stake, the Institute argues, is not merely a zoning dispute, but whether churches remain free to answer suffering with shelter without first seeking the government’s permission.

Case History

August 14, 2025 • Rutherford Institute Warns Against Ordinance That Could Bar Churches From Offering Cold-Weather Shelters to the Homeless

Letter to the Louisa County Planning Commission

Letter to the Louisa County Board of Supervisors

Article posted with permission from John Whitehead