Faith groups win meetings dispute
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Religious charities should be allowed to use the common areas in public housing to offer residents counseling, job training and other services, the government is advising local housing authorities.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development developed the policy after receiving reports that some authorities denied religious charities access to meeting rooms, an agency official said.
HUD wanted to make the policy clear, as it plans to encourage more religious groups to offer their services on site to public housing residents, said Steven Wagner, deputy director of the agency's office of faith-based initiatives.
"There's rather little of it going on now," he said.
Letters about the policy are going to all 3,200 local public housing authorities. HUD cannot impose the policy, but many authorities look to the agency for guidance.
"To the extent the common areas and meeting rooms are made available to any organization for the purpose of conducting residen-tial programs, faith-based organizations may not be denied equal right of access because of their religious character," HUD Secretary Mel Martinez wrote.
The letter is part of President Bush's effort to get religious organizations more involved in helping to address social problems.
Legislation that is supported by the White House but has stalled in Congress would open more government programs to churches, synagogues and other religious groups.
In the meantime, federal agencies are trying to do what they can under the law to open the government's doors wider to religious groups. No HUD money now falls under charitable choice laws, which allow projects spending government money to maintain exemptions from civil rights laws and make hiring and firing decisions based on religion.
The Bush administration initiative has raised concerns about possible violations of the constitutional separation between church and state.
But Terri Schroeder, a legislative analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the HUD letter appears to merely reiterate a commonly accepted tenet.
