Diocese of Easton church faces city fines for letting unhoused people sleep on its property

Tents in the courtyard of St. Paul’s By-the-Sea Episcopal Church that provide overnight shelter have run afoul of zoning ordinances, Ocean City, Maryland, officials have told the church. St. Paul’s risks fines of up to $5,000 a day if they aren’t removed by the end of the day March 23. Photo: The Rev. Jill Williams

[Episcopal News Service] An Episcopal church in Ocean City, Maryland, is facing fines of up to $5,000 a day if it continues to allow people to sleep in church-provided tents on its property.

Since last fall, St. Paul’s By-the-Sea, which is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Easton, has provided a safe place for about a dozen people to sleep. Currently, eight tents are set up in the church’s small side courtyard, and another three are under an alcove near the front door. The tents provide shelter for people who are “chronically homeless, generationally homeless” among the 40 or 50 people in the town of 7,000 who are unhoused, the Rev. Jill Williams, the church’s rector, told Episcopal News Service.

In May 2025 both Ocean City and the surrounding Worcester County adopted ordinances making it illegal for people to sleep in public places. Six months later, Williams knew the church needed to find a way to keep unhoused people from going to jail just for trying to find a place to sleep.

That commitment to people in need is central to the church’s identity, Williams said. “We have an entire building dedicated to outreach,” referring to the former parish hall where the church serves a hot meal to about 40 people five days a week, provides a food pantry and offers monthly community dinners that also help stock people’s freezers.

But while the church is happy to have people sleep on their property, the city is not. The county has not taken any action against the church.

In February City Manager Terence McGean told Williams that the tents needed to be gone, originally by the end of the month but now with a firm deadline of March 23 at 5 p.m. Eastern – six days before Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week, she noted.

An alcove at the front of the church provides space for three tents that give overnight shelter to unhoused people. Photo: The Rev. Jill Williams

After that date, McGean told ENS by email, the church can be fined up to $5,000 for each day the tents remain. “This action is not something we undertake lightly, but the current situation is simply untenable,” he wrote.

Williams received a certified letter dated March 13 that she shared with ENS, informing her that the church’s tents were a violation of zoning ordinances.

Ironically, she said, just a few days before that letter arrived, someone with the Worcester County government called the church asking if it could provide a tent for a man who was being released from prison and had nowhere else to go.

“We said of course and then fed him dinner and got him set up in a tent,” Williams said. “That’s the county government utilizing us as the only resource available, and yet the city is saying ‘no.’”

There is another shelter just outside town, she said, a large one that requires background checks and other commitments for those it takes in, as well as a cold-weather shelter that opens when temperatures fall below 25 degrees Fahrenheit.

She called both facilities “very successful and wonderful,” but the people sleeping at St. Paul’s either don’t meet their requirements or don’t feel comfortable there. What the church offers is a place where people can come without exclusion. “We’re trying to create a community that truly dignifies them as human beings.”

For Williams, the ideal solution would be a low-barrier overnight shelter in space inside the outreach building. “I can move people inside tomorrow, but I don’t have the staff,” she said, because that would require money to pay them that the church doesn’t have. She is seeking grants and donations that could eventually make such a shelter a reality.

The tourist season starts in late March in Ocean City, a beach community that hosts 8 million visitors each year. St. Paul’s is located downtown, across from city hall and near some of the town’s many hotels. Built in 1900, the church is one of only two historic buildings in that area.

Williams said she understands that town officials and business owners would prefer their guests not have to see the people who sleep at the church. But at the same time, the number of people using St. Paul’s hot meals and food pantry jumps from the usual 40 to 50 each weekday to as many as 140 once seasonal hotel and restaurant workers arrive in town and need to stretch their paychecks.

St. Paul’s By-the-Sea, built in 1900, is located in downtown Ocean City, Maryland, across from city hall and near some of the town’s many hotels. It is one of only two historic buildings in that area. Photo: St. Paul’s By-the-Sea

“They’re not making enough to eat, so we’re feeding them,” she said. Some businesses do support the food ministry, along with other community partners, but she said it would be nice if the places whose workers are being fed by the church felt moved to contribute.

St. Paul’s has been active in feeding hungry people for decades, but tragedy struck it in November 2013, when a man set himself on fire and ran into the building that housed the ministry. He and the church’s rector, the Rev. David Dingwall, died as a result, and the building was destroyed.

But even in the aftermath, Williams said the ministry never stopped. “When there was no building, people gave out food from the trunks of their cars.” The parish hall then was converted into the outreach center used today.

As March 23 approaches, Williams has been working with an attorney to better understand what kind of fine the city is considering. “Are we talking about $25 or $2,500?” she wondered.

She also is seeking clarity on what kind of structure, if any, would meet the city’s zoning requirements. “People can sleep on our property,” she said. “That is legal, because we are private property. But they are saying people can’t sleep in a tent.”

But anything that has the city’s approval that isn’t enclosed won’t provide the level of safety and dignity people have now, she said.

And providing shelter isn’t just something nice for the church to do, she said. “It’s commanded by Scripture,” including in the Gospel of Matthew 25:35 – “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” She said that when someone comes to her and says they don’t have a place to stay, her response is simple – she gives them a place to stay.

She counts all those the church helps – either by feeding them or giving them a sleeping tent – as “our people.” She added, “Some of them do attend church here, but just because they don’t sit in a pew on Sunday does not mean they are not our congregation. …We understand our congregation to be all the people.”

— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.