A settlement has been reached between a Texas town and a halfway house for former prison inmates.
The House Where Jesus Shines ran out of space and purchased an old nursing home in Bellmead. Ronnie Holmes is the pastor.
“We had had at that point some 600-plus men who have come through the program, men who have come out of prison. They commit six months of their lives to transition back into society,” he notes. “In our program, they’re in church at least three times a week, they’re in class four nights a week, and they have jobs.”
But plans for the new Christ-centered facility in an industrial-zoned area came to a halt when the city refused the plan. “There were no restrictions that way, [there were no] zoning restrictions against it. There were no city ordinances to prohibit its use as a transitional facility or halfway house,” Holmes explains.
After some citizen objections snowballed, within two and a half weeks the city council enacted an emergency ordinance targeting and prohibiting the ministry. The House Where Jesus Shines filed suit but reached a settlement before going to trial, allowing the halfway house to go forward. Under the settlement, the city of Bellmead will pay the ministry $550,000.
Holmes says it is time for everyone involved to take a deep breath and move forward.
(Source: OneNewsNow)