The Rev. Kim Wells has been the pastor of Lakewood United Church of Christ in St. Petersburg for the last 15 years. The progressive church inadvertently triggered a firestorm last month when the 75-member congregation applied for a permit to allow 30 tents on their property for the homeless. Members of the Lakewood Estates Neighborhood Association came out against the proposal, assailing the City Council and garnering 400 signatures on a petition. On March 19, the church became the first organization to be denied a permit under a new City Council ordinance regulating tent cities. Rev. Wells says the church was trying to fulfill a citywide need for emergency shelter. Here she is on:
Tent cities as a solution to St. Petersburg's homeless crisis:
We certainly don't see this as a solution, but we look at it as an opportunity to serve a few people in a limited way. We're actually the only place that's taking anybody in. That's really sad. … We would be thrilled not to be needed.
Reaction from the neighborhood:
We anticipated there would be people in the neighborhood that wouldn't be happy, but the nature of the response was surprising. One guy wrote me a letter basically accusing me of being satanic for doing this. … Some folks in the neighborhood seem to think their opinion could control what we could do. The church is independent of the community, and the church must be faithful to God first.
The church's next step:
Ideally, we're going to get to the point where the tents can go up. We're in the process of submitting a revised version of the permit.
This article appears in Apr 11-17, 2007.