Is the Refuge Room, run by the Refuge Chapel on Pioneer Avenue, a rooming house, a bunkhouse, a homeless shelter or just a flophouse?

According to City Planner Rick Abboud it's a rooming house. According to City Attorney Tom Klinkner, it's a rooming house. According to citizen activist Frank Griswold, it's a homeless shelter.

According to Refuge Chapel Pastor Darren Williams, it doesn't matter what it's called so long as he can continue his work legally.

At a special Monday gathering of the Homer City Council, meeting as the Board of Adjustment, no decision was made about an appeal of a so-called non-decision by the Homer Advisory Planning Commission to classify the Refuge Room.

But what does that mean?

The "non-decision" was reached in a July meeting of the planning commission. The motion on whether to classify the Refuge Room as a rooming house failed 2-3, but under the planning commission bylaws four votes are needed to take action, so Abboud's decision that the Refuge Room is a rooming house stood. Griswold appealed.

Under Abboud's decision, the Refuge Room is allowed to provide low-cost housing because it is not classified as a homeless shelter.

The Refuge Chapel's outreach extends beyond low-cost lodging and represents a service Williams feels is necessary in Homer from religious guidance, to alcohol and drug cessation, to friendship for the friendless.

Before Raegin Romero was found dead on Nov. 27 near Beluga Slough, friends from the Refuge Chapel would often check on him at his camp and helped him through fall and, in winter, discovered his body after they noticed he been missing from his tent, according to Williams.

Since the planning commission's July vote, the Refuge Room has gone on doing just what it always has, and what Williams says it will continue to do.

If Griswold's appeal is successful, the Refuge Room will be a zoning violation and will have to close.

"I think we have a moral obligation to do what we're doing, but we've tried to make it legal so we wouldn't be shut down for operating illegally. If we cannot figure out how to make this legal I doubt that Homer will get a chance at the services we provide again," said Williams.

According to Griswold, religious points should not come into the discussion and bone hard legality should be the only grounds that the Board of Adjustment should consider.

"As far as Refuge Chapel is concerned they're asking for you to do the right thing from a religious point of view and I don't think that is what you are here to do, but that you need to do the right thing by the law," said Griswold.

The Board of Adjustment discussed the issue in executive session and gave no indication of when it would announce a decision. According to Mayor pro tempore Wythe, "At this point we have to go through the process. There is nothing more I can discuss publicly. All I can say is that we will be expeditious."