‘We will not back down!’ Ocean City church defiant amid mounting pressure to close homeless shelter

By Michael Gryboski, Editor Wednesday, May 13, 2026

A church in Ocean City, Maryland, is facing mounting pressure from local officials to shut down an indoor homeless shelter operating on its property.

St. Paul's by the Sea Episcopal Church announced Tuesday on Facebook that Ocean City officials had sent them a letter demanding that they shut down the shelter by June 8.

According to the letter, a copy of which they posted on Facebook, the church is allegedly violating a zoning ordinance regarding the use of “barracks-style living quarters.”

The church recently installed bunk beds inside its 2,960-square-foot assembly hall so homeless individuals could sleep indoors instead of on the streets.

Officials allege that this “is not a permitted principal use” and that the facility “lacks sufficient plumbing fixtures to meet the minimum fixture requirements” required by the city code.

“We will not back down!” St. Paul's by the Sea defiantly stated in their Facebook post. “Our shelter operates as a ministry of the church rooted in the Gospel call to care for ‘the least of these’ (Matthew 25:40).”

“We provide low-barrier sheltering without requiring identification, sobriety, employment, or participation in programs as conditions for receiving help. We want to be absolutely clear: we will not turn our homeless neighbors out onto the street.”

The church also highlighted the shelter's impact, noting that over the course of 42 nights of operation, “892 individuals have slept safely at the shelter,” and they are “currently averaging 27 guests per night.”

Earlier this year, St. Paul’s By-the-Sea drew backlash from local officials for allowing local homeless people to set up an outdoor tent encampment on its property, with Ocean City saying that the encampment violated a local ordinance.

City Manager Terence McGean told The Christian Post back in March that local officials “recognize the sensitivity of this situation and the complexity of supporting individuals experiencing homelessness.”

“While the tents currently on the property do not comply with existing zoning ordinances, Ocean City is committed to balancing compassion with compliance,” he said at the time. “We respect the intent behind the church’s actions; however, the town cannot simply ignore ongoing violations of our laws.”

McGean also said that city officials “have not told them to remove the homeless from their property,” only the tents, and that they were “working to ensure that support happens safely and within the law.”

Later that month, the church moved its homeless shelter indoors, hiring staff to operate it every evening from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. ET. Known as “The Shelter by the Sea,” the ministry effort also provides resources, including affordable housing assistance and substance abuse programs, Episcopal News Service reported. 

The Rev. Jill Williams, rector of St. Paul’s by-the-Sea, told ENS last month that her church was “getting calls from homeless outreach teams in neighboring cities asking us to give people a place to stay.”

“We lived Holy Week on a whole different level this year. It was such a sign of the reality that Good Friday is not the end of the story, that there is hope out there, and there is love and transformation,” she said.

“When Christ knocks and says, ‘I need a place to sleep,’ we must listen. Every single person who walks through our doors to eat and to sleep is Christ.”