'Nuisance': Far-right Texas AG seeks to shut down homeless ministry on Thanksgiving

28 November 2024

Far-right Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been a highly divisive figure in Lone Star State politics, often drawing vehement criticism not only from Democrats, but also from fellow Republicans. Nonetheless, Paxton survived an impeachment trial in the Texas State Senate, where he was acquitted on 16 articles. And the Donald Trump ally hasn't become any less combative.

Paxton, a Baptist who embraces a severe brand of Christian fundamentalism, is known for picking fights with churches he considers impure. And his latest religious target, according to Chron.com reporter Eric Killelea, is a church in Austin that helps the homeless.

Killelea reports that on Tuesday, November 26, Paxton announced a lawsuit against Austin's Sunrise Community Church in response to their activities on behalf of the city's homeless.

The Texas attorney general declared, "By operating a taxpayer-funded drug paraphernalia giveaway next to an elementary school, this organization is threatening students' health and safety and unjustly worsening daily life for every single resident of the neighborhood. We will shut this unlawful nuisance behavior down."

In Austin, Sunrise operates a nonprofit called the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center.

Paxton, in the lawsuit, describes the church as a "magnet" for people with drug problems and alleges that the Navigation Center encourages them to commit crimes.

The lawsuit alleges, "Sunrise homeless clients break into residents' homes. They menace residents with machetes. They routinely urinate and defecate in the streets. They masturbate in public, while trying to grab passing women. They wake up residents with high-pitched screams in the middle of the night."

According to the Sunrise Community Church, however, the Navigation Center has helped many homeless Texans overcome homelessness.

Killelea reports, "Sunrise Community Church, which is part of the Reformed Church in America — a generally liberal denomination within the Protestant faith — has described the Sunrise Homeless Navigation Center as the largest provider of homelessness services in Travis County. The Center, founded in 2015, provides meals, showers and computer access to people experiencing homelessness, per reporting by the Austin American-Statesman's Skye Seipp. The church claims to have helped more than 4275 people move into housing through the ministry.

Read Eric Killelea's full article for Chron.com is available at this link.

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