Public housing must be open to `faith-based' groups, HUD chief says. (People & Events).

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has notified 3,200 public housing authorities nationwide that they must have an "open door policy" toward "faith-based" organizations that provide social services to residents.

HUD Secretary Mel Martinez issued the directive March 15. In a HUD press release, Martinez saluted the work of faith-based organizations, writing, "At a time of hardship in our cities, when government resources are already stretched to the limit, we need these guardian angels. My hope is to end the confusion and help to establish a level playing field for faith-based and community organizations that seek a partnership with the federal government."

The release noted that Martinez had ordered a complete review of all HUD programs to "identify barriers to the participation of community- and faith-based organizations. As a result, HUD is working to remove these barriers and reach out to the faith community and other grassroots organizations that are uniquely positioned to more effectively provide social services to low-income Americans."

Martinez said he acted because several local housing development agencies had restricted access to faith-based organizations. He cited a case from Sioux Falls, S.D., where St. Francis House, a Roman Catholic group, turned down $53,000 in federal money after it was told to stop prayer sessions before serving meals to the homeless and also ordered to remove religious icons from its facility. Officials in Sioux Falls had told the group that HUD regulations precluded religious activity in a tax-funded program.

On March 12, Martinez wrote to officials at the Sioux Falls Department of Community Development and told them that it is not HUD policy to require faith-based groups to stop sponsoring mealtime prayers or remove religious symbols.

"Groups such as the St. Francis House are vital partners in the mission of this Department to fight the battle against homelessness," Martinez wrote. "I am deeply concerned that this Department has been cited as the cause for adverse action against St. Francis House."

Martinez asserted that requiring a government-funded social service provider to remove religious content from its program would be a violation of the First Amendment.

Dan Katz, Americans United's Director of Legislative Affairs, told reporters Martinez's interpretation of the Constitution is wrong.

"When people go to seek social services, they should not be required or even coerced to engage in any kind of religious activity," Katz said. "Our Constitution does not allow that. It's a fundamental violation of rights."

Ironically, Martinez' new guidelines came just after the federal agency was running into trouble with a "faith-based" project in the District of Columbia.

According to The Washington Post, HUD has ended a contract with a faith-based group in Washington, D.C., that was supposed to renovate run-down houses owned by the federal government and sell them to low-income families. HUD ended its relationship with the Church Association for Community Services after learning that a for-profit firm had been brought in to oversee the renovation and sale of the properties, a practice that violated the terms of the contract.

* White House Faith Czar Jim Towey has asked Catholic social service ministry leaders to support the Bush administration's "faith-based" initiative. In his Feb. 27 remarks, however, Towey, who heads the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, gave the Washington gathering a mixed message about how the "partnership" between religion and government would work.

According to the Catholic News Service, Towey said, "You should not be preaching or proselytizing on the federal government's dime. But you cannot strip programs of their religious content, because that is what makes them effective.'

* Tommy Thompson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has announced his opposition to publicly funded discrimination. In testimony in April in the House, Thompson told Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), "I'm opposed to discrimination, period. If you are using federal money to discriminate, that is wrong, period."

The stance appears to conflict with the Bush administration's official line that publicly funded religious charities should be allowed to discriminate on religious grounds in hiring.