{"id":2597024,"date":"2026-04-30T09:18:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-in-ny-town-block-christian-shelter-from-welcoming-more-homeless\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T09:24:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:24:47","slug":"democrats-in-ny-town-block-christian-shelter-from-welcoming-more-homeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrats-in-ny-town-block-christian-shelter-from-welcoming-more-homeless\/","title":{"rendered":"Dems In NY Town Block Shelter From Welcoming More Homeless"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrats-in-ny-town-block-christian-shelter-from-welcoming-more-homeless%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2597024&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article describes the Capital City Rescue Mission in Albany\u2019s South End-a faith-based shelter marked by a \u201cJesus Saves\u201d neon cross-that serves hundreds of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/far-left-cheers-as-homeless-group-seizes-hotel-near-tacoma-city-leaders-negotiating-with-group-as-police-refuse-to-intervene\/\" title=\"Far Left Cheers As Homeless Group Seizes Hotel Near Tacoma; ... Leaders Negotiating With Group As Police Refuse To Intervene\">homeless people<\/a> each night and provides meals, recovery and discipleship programs, housing, health care, and job\/education support. The mission wants too expand with a $6 million four-story addition on land it owns, but Albany\u2019s city planning board has refused to even vote after years of opposition, saying the project\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >420-page environmental impact statement<\/a> is \u201cincomplete and inadequate,\u201d despite the mission\u2019s repeated responses and claims that the board\u2019s stance conflicts with state environmental guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>The piece argues the city is effectively stalling or discouraging the project through a drawn-out, costly process, and notes the mission sued in January 2025 under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-affirms-law-that-keeps-native-american-children-with-native-families\/\" title=\"Supreme Court upholds law favoring Native families for Native American children.\">federal law meant<\/a> to prevent municipalities from using zoning and regulatory barriers to discriminate against religious groups.<\/p>\n<p>It also counters critiques from local officials and residents-some of whom blame the mission for neighborhood problems and the presence of a nearby elementary school-by portraying the shelter as a genuine source of stability and conversion for participants. The article highlights testimonies from people who credit the mission with saving their lives and helping them become sober, employed, housed, and independent, suggesting that without such \u201ctrue hope,\u201d many would remain vulnerable on the streets.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Just a short walk from New York State\u2019s capitol and the Empire State Plaza are the bleak streets of Albany\u2019s South End. But out of the squalor, on the upper brick wall on a corner of South Pearl Street, shines a white cross with two intersecting words on it in red neon letters: JESUS SAVES.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalcityrescuemission.org\/about\/leadership\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">landmark sign<\/a> welcomes tired, hungry, drug-and-alcohol-ravaged souls to the <a href=\"https:\/\/capitalcityrescuemission.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Capital City Rescue Mission<\/a>, which houses more than 300 homeless people a night, according to Perry Jones, who has been the mission\u2019s executive director for 44 years. But many have to sleep on mats on the floor, which is why the Christian shelter is seeking to build a $6 million four-story addition on land it owns.<\/p>\n<p>But the city planning board, after nearly five years and several contentious public meetings, declined to even vote on the project, <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.nynd.146476\/gov.uscourts.nynd.146476.1.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claiming<\/a> the mission\u2019s 420-page draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) is \u201cincomplete and inadequate.\u201d The mission repeatedly addressed a long list of supposed deficiencies in the DEIS, only to have the board continue to claim that the hefty document was lacking. The city\u2019s claim also apparently contradicted <a href=\"https:\/\/extapps.dec.ny.gov\/docs\/permits_ej_operations_pdf\/part617seqr.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">regulations of the state Department of Environmental Conservation<\/a> that the DEIS should not be \u201cencyclopedic\u201d and should address only effects that can be \u201creasonably anticipated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cynical strategy behind the city\u2019s stonewalling seems obvious: to force the mission into a complex, costly legal battle or scrap the project.<\/p>\n<p>So in January 2025 the mission sued the city of Albany in federal court under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/crt\/religious-land-use-and-institutionalized-persons-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">RLUIPA<\/a>). Congress enacted RLUIPA in 2000 to ensure that religious organizations aren\u2019t discriminated against by municipalities that use zoning laws and bureaucratic regulations to block their projects. RLUIPA was designed to guarantee religious entities their First Amendment right to freely exercise their religious beliefs, including acts like serving poor and homeless people.<\/p>\n<p>Started by a small group of businessmen, the Capital City Rescue Mission has been serving \u201cthe least of these,\u201d as Jesus says in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=matthew%2025%3A34-40&#038;version=KJV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Matthew 25<\/a>, in Albany for more than three-quarters of a century. By 2000 the mission had outgrown its longtime home and moved a short distance to the South End.<\/p>\n<p>The mission does a lot more than just give homeless people clean sheets and a pillow and a blanket and a roof over their heads for the night. Jones says it serves upward of 1,000 free meals every day of the year and hands out two tons of food a week to the community. It also offers an addiction recovery and Christian discipleship program for men, a separate women and children\u2019s program, 56 transitional apartments, a free health clinic, and a learning center that helps participants get a GED and jobs.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a crucial difference between the mission and government- and grant-funded homeless efforts. The mission targets the root of the problem: the soul. In other words it gives homeless people what no social welfare agency or secular nonprofit can ever provide \u2014 eternal hope \u2014 salvation through repentance and belief in Jesus Christ. In fact the mission is incorporated as a church and presents daily Christian sermons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Capital City Rescue Mission saved my life seventeen years ago,\u201d said David Poach Sr., the mission\u2019s chief of staff, at a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xcJqZgyMZxA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">city planning board meeting in August 2022<\/a>. \u201cI graduated their program along with thousands of other men and women who are now living, working in Albany, paying taxes in the city.\u201d Poach went on to say that 90 percent of the mission\u2019s frontline staff \u201ccame off the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roger Murman, vice president of the mission\u2019s board, told the city planning board at the same meeting that the mission has invested $12.7 million in the South End to buy and rehabilitate derelict buildings. When one of the planning board members unwittingly asked if that money came from the city or other grants, Murman said without missing a beat: \u201cEvery penny that the mission spent is from donations from the Christian community around the Capital District.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was momentary silence. Not gorging at the public trough is unthinkable \u2014 politically blasphemous \u2014 in this deep-blue <a href=\"https:\/\/www.governor.ny.gov\/news\/governor-hochul-celebrates-more-400-million-investment-states-capital-city\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">crumbling city<\/a> of about 100,000.<\/p>\n<p>In fact the city seems to be punishing the mission for not being part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/article\/seattle-under-siege\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Homeless Industrial Complex<\/a>, which keeps vagrants on the streets and puts money in the pockets of their enablers \u2014 the so-called homeless advocates and their governmental accomplices.<\/p>\n<p>The other factor that appears to gall the mission\u2019s opponents, based on reactions at the public meetings and elsewhere, is that its leadership staff are evangelical Christians. Their animosity isn\u2019t surprising. Albany regularly places high in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.barna.com\/research\/churchless-cities-where-does-your-city-rank\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">surveys<\/a> of the most godless metro areas in the country. And most of the mission\u2019s leaders are also white (though the board president and many of the frontline staff are black). The South End, historically among Albany\u2019s poorest neighborhoods, is predominantly black.<\/p>\n<p>So a host of South End residents and demagogues, abetted by the local media, have made the mission a scapegoat for the troubled neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p>Take Sam Fein, who is now city auditor but was an Albany County legislator who represented the South End in 2023. On the eve of a second <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blue-state-blues-the-prayer-of-the-press-secretary\/\" title=\"Blue State Blues: The Prayer of the Press Secretary\">major public meeting<\/a> on the project, Fein sent a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/1032572674\/Sam-Fein-Letter-to-Albany-Planning-Board\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letter<\/a> to the city planning board urging it to subject the mission to an intensive review. This runs counter to both federal law and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/here-we-go-again-dekalb-county-georgia-is-re-scanning-advance-ballots-because-of-memory-card-issue\/\" title=\"Here We Go Again: DeKalb County Georgia is Re-Scanning Advance Ballots Because of \u2018Memory Card Issue\u2019\">state guidelines<\/a>. His letter was signed by 56 people, including other city officials. Among them was Dorcey Applyrs, who was then city auditor but was recently elected Albany\u2019s first black mayor.<\/p>\n<p>One of the ostensible objections often cited against the mission\u2019s proposed addition is the presence of a nearby elementary school. In his inflammatory letter, Fein essentially blamed the mission for all the woes the schoolchildren encounter in the South End \u2014 \u201cpanhandling, public urination, people sleeping or nodding off on sidewalks \u2026 liquor bottles and drug paraphernalia.\u201d According to him, it\u2019s all the mission\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n<p>Fein\u2019s implication, in short, is that the mission is the \u201cGreat Satan,\u201d as Murman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xcJqZgyMZxA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">phrased<\/a> it at one meeting.<\/p>\n<p>The truth is the mission isn\u2019t the creator of the South End\u2019s many misfortunes or even a contributor to them. In fact it\u2019s a committed and compassionate bulwark against them. Those who complete the mission\u2019s addiction recovery and discipleship program and become Christians are transformed, and not just spiritually. Many of them stay sober, get a job, get an apartment, and get off the public dole.<\/p>\n<p>Like Willie McKnight, an older black man who ended up working at the mission. At a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hPnSwGcJnjQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">city planning board meeting on the project in January 2023<\/a>, the board wouldn\u2019t allow commenters to talk about how the mission had helped them. McKnight and others tried to anyway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I came to the door, I seen the sign that says, \u2018Jesus Saves,\u2019\u201d McKnight said. \u201cAnd that was the building I came to. If it wasn\u2019t for that building being there on that corner, where would I would have been?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To answer his rhetorical question: back on the bleak streets of the South End. Without true hope. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Jeff Plude is a freelance writer and book editor. He is also a former contributing editor of the New English Review.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A block from Albany\u2019s capitol, a neon sign reads \u201cJESUS SAVES.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4273,"featured_media":2597025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Copy-of-Untitled-88.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[3685,4586,32671,32120,78860],"class_list":["post-2597024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-democrats","tag-homeless","tag-housing-policy","tag-new-york","tag-shelter-outreach"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Copy-of-Untitled-88.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4273"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2597024"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2597033,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2597024\/revisions\/2597033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2597025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2597024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2597024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2597024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}