OH Church, Dad’s Place, Prevails in Years-Long Legal Battle Against City
The church runs a temporary homeless shelter that the city has tried to shut down.
Dad’s Place, the temporary housing shelter in Bryan, Ohio, that has been fighting for its right to operate, has finally reached a conclusion to its ongoing legal matters.
Last week, Judge James D. Bates of the Court of Common Pleas of Williams County issued a final order dismissing with prejudice the lawsuit brought against Dad’s Place and Pastor Chris Avell by the City of Bryan.
Dad’s Place Pastor Chris Avell / Photo courtesy of First Liberty Institute
The judge decided against the city based on First Amendment Free Exercise of Religion grounds. It was instructed by a higher appellate court to apply a “strict scrutiny” standard to the city’s actions; the city must demonstrate a “compelling government interest” for stopping Dad’s Place from its ministry activities and also must have used the “least restrictive means” in doing so.
The judge found that the city’s enforcement failed the strict scrutiny standard.
“This decision should put an end once and for all to the city’s relentless attacks on Dad’s Place and Pastor Chris. All Pastor Chris ever wanted to do was keep the doors of his church open to those in desperate need of temporary shelter. It’s past time for the city to end its mean-spirited, three-year campaign of harassment of this church,” said Jeremy Dys, senior counsel with First Liberty, the public interest law firm representing Dad’s Place.
The dispute began early in 2024 when Avell was served with 18 criminal violations for keeping his church open for temporary sheltering of homeless people from the cold.
The city tried to compel Dad’s Place to install an expensive fire suppression system, but it did not require similar systems of other buildings like motels, senior living facilities, and apartment complexes.
In December 2024, Ohio Judge J.T. Stelzer issued an injunction preventing the church from offering its building for use by homeless persons.
Stelzer wrote, “Fire code regulations and the zoning code enforcement procedures do not burden Dad’s Place religious purposes and free exercise. Any burden upon Dad’s Place is incidental to the City of Bryan’s enforcement of the fire code and zoning laws and the safety provisions of those regulations.”
Almost a year later, in November 2025, the Ohio Sixth Appellate District Court reversed the trial court’s decision.
Avell was also found guilty in municipal court of a criminal charge related to a fire code violation, fined $200, and given a 60-day suspended sentence in January 2025.
The appeal of his criminal conviction from Bryan Municipal Court remains pending before the Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals, according to First Liberty.
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