The following statements from Pastor Angelo and Pastor Jason offer their response regarding the proposed 24/7 low-barrier homelessness resource center. This resource center is planned to be located at 333 E. Washington, which is directly south of First Wayne Street.

From Rev. Angelo Mante:

My name is Angelo Mante. I serve as an appointed pastor at First Wayne Street United Methodist Church and as Executive Director of Alive Community Outreach, the nonprofit that occupies the church’s south wing. I am writing in support of the proposed 24/7, low-barrier homeless resource center at 333 E. Washington Boulevard. Our building sits directly north of that property. We share an alley with it.

A lot of voices are weighing in on this proposal, and rightly so. Pastor Jason Morris has offered a strong theological case on behalf of First Wayne Street, and I stand with every word. Our neighbors in business have raised real concerns about foot traffic, revenue, and the future of downtown commerce. I take those concerns seriously. As someone running an organization on this block, I share the hope behind them: a downtown that is safe, welcoming, and full of life.

I want to speak from where I sit. Alive Community Outreach is a youth-serving nonprofit with twelve staff and a thirteenth on the way. In a few weeks, our sixth Peacemaker Academy will bring more than seventy high school students in and out of our doors every day for three weeks. Year-round, we serve youth, survivors of violence, and learners from teenagers to elders. We manage budgets, payroll, programming, and a building full of people we are responsible for every single day.

We chose this location intentionally. We wanted to be downtown, at the heart of the community we serve, and we have a long-term commitment to this district. That commitment is exactly why I want to speak plainly about what we have witnessed.

For six years, we have witnessed up close what is happening on the streets around us. People have set up camp behind our bushes. We have literally had to step over people sleeping in our doorway to get into our own building. Just the other day, I took water outside to a man coughing so hard it sounded like he was dying. This is not a rare moment. There is constant need all around us. Our staff have also witnessed conflicts and drug use outside our windows, and some encounters have left our team and the people we serve shaken. These are not stories about dangerous people. They are stories about human beings in crisis, without shelter, without support, in plain view of a city that has not yet built what they need.

That is the real safety issue. The Rescue Mission does important work, but no single organization can meet every kind of need — and the neighbors who fall outside what the Mission can offer will continue to land on the blocks around it, including ours, regardless of where a new resource center is located.

A 24/7, low-barrier facility with structured supervision and real coordination with community partners gives our unhoused neighbors somewhere to actually go. Somewhere staffed around the clock. Somewhere that can connect a person in crisis to the right services at the moment they are ready to receive them. That is not a threat to this block. That is what good public safety looks like — addressing a problem directly rather than pushing it down the street.

Make no mistake: if I believed this resource center would make our block less safe, I would be the first one opposing it. As it stands, I believe it will turn an unmanaged situation into a coordinated one, and that is good for everyone — for the people the center will serve, for our staff, for our business neighbors, and for the future of downtown.

We are for this. And we are ready to work with the city, with the Rescue Mission, with our business neighbors, and with everyone on this block to make sure it is implemented well. Done right, a resource center strengthens the entire district — including the businesses and institutions that have invested in it.

A bottle of water was the best I had to offer the man in our alley that morning. I would love for our block to offer the next person more than that.

From Rev. Jason Morris (shared in worship on May 17, 2026):

Over the past few days, many of you have likely heard the news about the proposed 24/7 homelessness resource center to be located directly south of us. I want you to know that both Rev. Angelo Mante and I are lending our support to this effort. In fact, he and I have been in conversation for nearly six years, asking what it might look like for us to respond more faithfully and more fully to the needs right here in our neighborhood. This proposal is a small, initial step.

The truth is this: whether this resource center is ultimately located here or somewhere else, the realities we face will not simply disappear. We are already situated on a corner of the city where need is visible every day, across from the mission, near businesses that are already navigating ongoing challenges. Relocating a resource does not remove the need. It only shifts it. The question before us is not whether we will respond, but how.

And for that, we turn to Scripture. Jesus makes something unmistakably clear in the Gospels: how we treat the most vulnerable among us is how we treat him (Matthew 25:31–46). “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” And then he says, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

This is not abstract theology. This is the measure of discipleship.

The call echoes throughout Scripture: In Isaiah, we are told to “loose the chains of injustice, share our bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into our houses.” In Micah, we are reminded to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.” In Hebrews, we are urged not to “neglect showing hospitality to strangers.”

This moment, then, is not just about a building or a program. It’s not a political or civil issue. It’s a discipleship issue. It is about our faith. Because the truth is, our unhoused neighbors are already here. They are not strangers to us. They are our neighbors that Jesus calls us to love and serve.

They are people like young man who grew up in this church and now sleeps outside because he has nowhere else to go. He sleeps outside our building because this is the one place he still feels safe. He regularly introduces me to others as his pastor and friend.

They are people like the young woman, struggling with addiction, who often sleeps outside our doors because she feels safe outside the church. Her mother is a pastor, and each time I see this young woman, with a deep sense of vulnerability and tears in her eyes, asks me if I’ll call her mom and let her know I saw her and that she’s alive.

These are not problems to manage. These are our neighbors whom Jesus calls us to love. These are our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. So let me say this clearly: “Not in my backyard” cannot be the response of the church. Not when Jesus calls us to welcome the stranger. Not when every person is fearfully and wonderfully made and bears the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Not when our faith calls us beyond comfort and into compassion.

This 24/7 resource center is not about bringing a problem here. It is about responding to a reality that is already here with greater care, dignity, and support.

The question before us is simple: will we follow Jesus at a distance, or will we follow him into the lives of those who need love the most? May we have the courage to choose compassion. May we have the faith to choose presence. And may we have the grace to see Christ in every neighbor we meet.

Prayer: Gracious and loving God, You see every neighbor, every story, every need and you call us to see as you see. Soften our hearts where they have grown guarded or afraid. Break through our hesitation, and replace it with compassion that reflects your own.

Give us courageous faith, not just to believe, but to act. When the path is uncertain or uncomfortable, remind us that your Spirit goes before us, beside us, and within us.Lead us, Holy Spirit. Shape our lives, guide our steps, and form us into a people who do not turn away, but draw near with love, humility, and grace. May we follow where you lead, trusting that in serving our neighbors, we are serving you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.