(25 Jul 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Castle Rock, Colorado – 12 July 2024
1. Various of two trailers parked in the parking lot of The Rock church
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Mike Polhemus, pastor, The Rock church:
“About six years ago we started using trailers on the back side of our property, two trailers on the back side of our property to help those that are struggling in our community. We used it as temporary, temporary shelter to help those that are struggling and did that for a number of years. And then just recently, the town of Castle Rock came to us and told us that we were no longer able to, to do what we’ve been doing and that it was a zoning violation."
3. Various of the interior of the church
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Mike Polhemus, pastor, The Rock church:
“The town is, has basically told us that we need to stop sheltering the, those that are struggling in our community. And so we believe we have the religious freedom. And this is why we filed a lawsuit because of our religious freedom to continue to do what we believe we’re called to do."
5. Various of one of the trailers
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Joe Ridenour, former trailer resident:
“I was physically exhausted. I was emotionally exhausted. And I had, I had someone die in my arms of an overdose. If it wasn’t for this trailer and this church, I feel I would have been in the same position because I wouldn’t have left that, that element that I needed to get, get away from."
7. Tight shots of Ridenour’s boots and cross necklace
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Joe Ridenour, former trailer resident:
“I’m not scared anymore. Then my kids. My. I. God has has made this a journey for me to be back with my family and back with my kids with a complete rewiring of me. I feel like I’m the old me, the little me, but I, but I feel like I’m also a new me through Him and through what Jesus’ sacrifice gives people. And so. It’s the greatest feeling in the world."
9. Sonia Moran looking at the view from her back patio
10. The view of the meadow from Moran’s back patio
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Sonia Moran, church neighbor:
“So being raised in the church, I do believe in the mission of the church wanting to take care of homeless people. I also believe that there is a place for that. In the Meadows, without any access to basic locations of groceries, work. I don’t feel like this is the right place for it.”
12. Various of the neighborhood surrounding the church property
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Mike Polhemus, pastor, The Rock church:
“We are actually the only opportunity that people have in all of Douglas County to have temporarily shelter within our community. And so it’s, it’s sad to see them empty right now. And we’re, we’re really hoping that we’ll be able to, to once again fill those with, with those that are struggling and in need.”
14. Various of the interior of the trailers, and the RVs parked in the church lot
STORYLINE:
Behind a church surrounded by rolling prairie on the outskirts of Castle Rock, Colorado sits a donated RV that Joe Ridenour called home for a year after he lost his job during the pandemic.
Being able to live in the RV, he said, allowed him to avoid returning to his native Kansas City, where he was afraid of backsliding into using methamphetamine again.
Ridenour, who now has a maintenance job at the county fairgrounds and rents a room from a friend he met at The Rock church, said that without the church’s help and the trailer, his drug use would have consumed him.
Two other recent lawsuits also alleged a violation of the 2000 law.
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