Church needs permit to aid the poor

Vancouver City Council thinks church needs "social-service licence" to serve the needy

(Staff) Vancouver City Council has told a local church that it needs a social-service licence if it wants to continue feeding and sheltering the poor.

The Tenth Avenue Alliance Church currently feeds dinner to 110 people and shelters about 25 every Monday in an Out-of-the-Cold winter program. It also operates Oasis, a daytime drop-in centre for 80 people, which operates from 10am until 1pm and serves lunch.

It currently has a church-use permit and feels that should suffice. Mardi Dolfo-Smith, senior associate pastor, finds it ironic that “City Hall allows us to feed people who don’t need food [the congregation] but we can’t feed people that need food.”

A social-service licence would require the church to have guards patrol the line-ups. The church would also have to closely monitor the poor by questioning them about where they live. “It would be a very inhospitable atmosphere,” said Dolfo-Smith. She believes the religious use of a church includes caring for the poor.

Tenth Avenue Alliance has an average Sunday attendance of 1,100

people. It renovated two years ago and homeless people who had lined up at the back for meals began to line up out front instead.   Neighbours complained to City Hall saying they feared that crime in the neighbourhood would rise. It was after receiving these complaints that the city stipulated that the church would need a permit for its charitable work.

The church is part of a coalition called “Faith Communities Called to Solidarity with the Poor” which is petitioning City Hall to waive the licensing requirements for religious organizations.