MONTROSE, Colo. (KREX) - "I was a stranger, and you took me in." It's a passage from the Bible’s gospel of Matthew and what the United Methodist Church in Montrose say they were doing by inviting local homeless neighbors to live and sleep in their courtyard during the cold winter February nights this past year. The act led to multiple citations by the city in a matter of days and a lawsuit they lost just this week.

Montrose Municipal Court found the church guilty on four out of five code violations, including Storage of Litter, Nuisances Prohibited, Zoning Prohibited, and Maintenance Requirements for Supplemental Structures. Fifteen witnesses testified in the exhaustive trial, including a criminal analyst, a fire marshall, and police, who described large amounts of refuse around the encam

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