WATCH: Pastor faces jail time for housing the homeless

(The Center Square) — An Ohio pastor faces possible jail time for allowing the homeless to sleep in his church.

Local officials in Bryan, Ohio, have threatened Pastor Chris Avell of Dad’s Place Church for breaking the fire code and have even taken him to court, but he is not backing down.

“In November we received a warning from the city that we were in zoning violation…since we had people that would come and we would not ask them to leave without a Biblical reason, that we were in violation of the city ordinance that says you can have no first floor residents,” Avell told The Center Square.

Avell’s lawyer, Jeremy Dys of the First Liberty Institute, said other local businesses have been treated differently and that Avell is being treated unfairly.

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