The City of Fairfield made clear this week that it still expects a small church to pay thousands of dollars in bureaucratic fines and penalties before it can resume its longtime ministries such as job training and free medical care.
For about 15 years, City Church Fairfield fed and sheltered the hungry, provided job training and addiction recovery programs. The church’s approach has been to not merely give handouts but a hand up, steering the downtrodden toward life transformation.
Earlier this year, the city shut down the free medical clinic and ordered everyone staying on the property to leave. Since that time, the church is aware of at least 4 of its residents who have died after being sent back to the streets. That number is likely to increase with the onset of winter.
The city is now requiring the church to complete an extensive Conditional Use Permit process to resume its free medical care and training program. The church has continued to feed the hungry, but other offerings such as safe overnight parking do not have any timetable for being allowed to return, even with winter and the holidays quickly approaching.
When the church could not pay an initial fine of more than $17,000 the city added penalties which have now ballooned to more than $310,000. Lawyers for the church contend the fine and the penalties are unjust.