SALISBURY, Md.- Some homeless shelters on Maryland’s Eastern Shore are voicing concern over a proposed bill in Annapolis. If passed, House Bill 577 would mandate that all Maryland homeless shelters accept government funding, and thus follow state rules and regulations.
Anthony Dickerson, Director of the Christian Shelter in Salisbury says if this passes, The Christian Shelter could no longer offer its teachings of Christianity.
“I believe it’s an attack on our spirituality because most shelters that don’t receive government funds promote spirituality,” said Dickerson. “It’ll be like the government, the state of Maryland will be dictating what we can, and cannot do. They literally will be taking over this building.”
Delegate Brooke Grossman of Washington County is sponsoring the bill. Grossman says this is by no means an attack on religion, and that shelters will still have their independence.
“Each organization is still going to have their own policies and procedures, nobody is coming in and standardizing that everyone does everything exactly the same way, just the basic standards,” said Grossman.
Grossman says the goal of the bill is to improve care for some of the most vulnerable in the state.
“This can bring uniformity across our homeless service network and really strengthen it. I think that’s the last impact we all want to see happen, that we have a continuum of care for our homeless population,” said Grossman. “It is to create an environment where homeless individuals are treated equitably across the board.”
Stephanie Johnson, Executive Director of His Hope Ministries Shelter says local leaders like herself and Dickerson know what is best for their shelters.
“It really takes the responsibility of us as executive directors, and how to run our shelters within our communities and put it at a state level with different restrictions that may not work for best for our shelters that we run in our specific communities,” said Johnson.
The first hearing for the bill is on February 16th.