About 50 members of New Journey Church of God and Christ in Hawthorne protested on Tuesday night a City Council decision not to turn an acre of land on their property into transitional housing for women recovering from substance abuse and their children.
The church's pastor, John Richardson, addressed the council about its 2-2 vote on November 25 on the issue. Mayor Larry Guidi and Councilman Ginny Lambert voted against the city using state Redevelopment Agency funds to buy the land. The city was considering selling the land to Behavioral Health Services to be developed into a transitional housing facility. Lambert and Guidi said the land was too expensive. A city appraiser valued it at $1.48 million.
Richardson said that church members supported the idea because part of the church's mission is to have "a dream of building a church and school that would help adults, youths, families, and hurting people."
Behavioral Health Services already operates a transitional home for women and children, and the nonprofit organization has wanted to open a second facility because of the community need.
Here is a picture I took from a camera phone of the church members addressing the council last night. It's a bad picture, but it kind of shows the number of people that were there to protest. Council meetings are usually sparsely attended.
We will have a story about this in tomorrow's paper.
I feel that what the church is trying to do for their community is great and this type of help is needed in so many cities all over. Hopefully other churches will catch on and want to help their communities in other cities as well. I say let them do what is good for the people.