ALLOUEZ, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Village of Allouez leaders say they were unaware of a plan to help the homeless in their community.
16 Green Bay area churches are taking week-long turns hosting the homeless for overnights during the summer.
Allouez leaders say for safety reasons, they should have been notified that two churches in the village are taking part in the program.
For two weeks in mid-May, Resurrection Catholic Church averaged 10 homeless people sleeping in its church each night.
“They would sit out here and they just said this is such beautiful grounds, we really appreciate being able to be here, thank you so much,” said Sheila DeLuca, Pastoral Associate and Family Life Director for Resurrection Church.
But Brad Lange, Allouez Village Administrator, tells FOX 11…
“I live five houses from Resurrection, I didn’t even know it was taking place.”
Lange says the village found out Resurrection was hosting the homeless from the fire department. The fire department found out while responding to two medical calls, on back to back nights.
“The fire department goes in not knowing that you walk into a facility thinking it’s probably vacant to find that there are additional people there.”
“We’ve had overnight guests on many occasions for youth retreats and adult retreats that spent the night,” said DeLuca.
“We’ve had pilgrims come through and we never thought to call the fire department so maybe that’s a new procedure we’ll have to keep in mind if it would be helpful.”
St John Homeless Shelter and the Micah Center helped organize the rotation of hosting churches, so the homeless would have somewhere to stay during St John’s six-month offseason.
St John Homeless Shelter and Micah Center Executive Director Alexia Wood explained the program to Allouez’s Village Board.
“We certainly are encouraged that together we can find a solution that works for everybody and then also gives hope to those homeless brothers and sisters and lets them know that they have an entire community cheering for them and caring for them.”
“It’s a good thing, a really good thing,” said Lange. “It’s just a matter of communication and making sure we can all work with each other.”
Both sides plan to meet next week to further discuss a plan going forward.
St. Matthew Catholic Church is Allouez’s other participating parish. It plans to host the homeless for a week later this summer.
There are 16 churches, from seven denominations, in the program in Brown County.
