New standards for faith organization hosting of homeless

New limitations on how a city can regulate homeless encampments on religious organization property will go into effect on June 11.

Prior to a new law passed this last legislative session, state and federal law already significantly restricted a local jurisdiction from impeding a religious organization in fulfilling its mission to help the homeless. Now HB 1754 adds several new prescriptive restrictions on the ability of counties, cities, and towns to regulate outdoor encampments, safe parking, indoor overnight shelters, and temporary small houses on property owned or controlled by a religious organization.

HB 1754 regulates how long hosted sites can remain, how often they can return to the same site, limits restrictions on safe parking, tiny houses, and indoor shelter spaces that lack fire sprinklers or other fire-safety provisions. The law does allow local jurisdictions to require a hosting organization to enter into a memorandum of understanding to protect public health and safety but prescribes what the agreement must include.

HB 1754 also authorizes local jurisdictions to perform checks for sex offenders, but the hosting organization has the authority to allow the offender to remain on site. Finally, the law requires any hosted site to have a public meeting prior to hosting, and notify the city, unless in response to an emergency. The city is then required to notify the public.

These new limitations do not affect policies, ordinances, memoranda of understanding, or consent decrees that:

• Existed before June 11, 2020;
• Do not categorically prohibit the hosting of the homeless by religious organizations; and
• Have not been previously ruled by a court to violate the relevant federal law—Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).

In addition, amendments to such policies, ordinances, memoranda of understanding, or consent decrees that occur after June 11 are also not affected by the new limitations if they do not categorically prohibit hosting or violate RLUIPA.