More than 50 homeless people traveled from downtown Sarasota to Remnant Church Sept. 9 for lunch and Bible study as the church provided limited homeless outreach services after a county citation for operating a social service facility on land zoned for single-family residential use.
The church said Remnant Cafe had operated since 2017, offering meals and other day-shelter services four days a week to between 100 and 130 homeless people daily. Most traveled south by bus from downtown Sarasota.
Neighbors said some homeless people did not return to downtown Sarasota and instead camped on nearby vacant land on both sides of the intersection of Swift and Ashton roads.
The code violation, based on an Aug. 26 visit to the facility and issued Aug. 28,
noted that “soup kitchens or other social service facilities are not a permitted use or special exception use within the zoning district."
“Food is being served on the premises,” it read. “Other Social Services are being provided on premises to include; hot showers, clean clothes, help with applications and forms, and a respite from the streets.”
Since the code violation was served, Remnant Church started to solicit donations for legal fees at remnant.breezechms.com/give/online.
The neighbors have started a website to document their concerns at ashtonroadmatters.com.
Tammy Burns, director of Remnant Cafe, said the program is not a social service but a way for church members to practice their faith.
“We were blindsided by this,” Miles Dunlap, one of the church’s teaching elders, told the Herald-Tribune shortly before the Sept. 9 Bible study began. “We were working with the county for 10 years; we have been doing this since 2017.”
Dunlap noted that the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office homeless outreach team frequently referred people to Remnant Cafe and that the county urged people to seek shelter from cold weather there last January.
"We’re not in the business of trying to get people to pick themselves up by the bootstraps and get themselves off the streets," Dunlap said. “We’re here to share the gospel, we're here to share Jesus with these people.”
“That’s the focus and main point of this ministry.”
How long has Remnant Cafe been at Ashton Road in Sarasota County?
The Remnant Cafe — which had offered free coffee and meals, hot showers and clean clothes — has operated at Remnant Church of Sarasota, 2895 Ashton Road, since the church, led by Pastor Frank Burns and his wife, Tammy Burns, merged with Ashton Mennonite Church in 2017.
Ashton Mennonite was granted a special exception in 1962 to operate as a church on residential land.
Tammy Burns said the outreach served between 100 and 130 homeless people.
Most of them either traveled to Remnant Cafe on Sarasota County's Breeze Transit buses or rode a Remnant Church bus from the Breeze Transit depot at 150 N. Lemon Ave. in downtown Sarasota, which is about six miles northwest of the church.
Remnant Church offers services and programs not tied to the homeless outreach.
On Wednesdays, a youth program is offered at 6:30 p.m. and Bible study at 7 p.m. while on Sundays it offers Bible study at 9 a.m. and a church service at 10:15 a.m.
By Sept. 8, the church was required to stop serving food and providing social services on the site.
Remnant Church reduces homeless outreach schedule
“Since we got this notice, we are trying to comply with the county,” Dunlap said. "We’re trying not to be adversarial.”
In response to that violation notice, the church dropped its homeless outreach on Mondays and Fridays and devised a plan to have Remnant Cafe open from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesdays and noon to 6 p.m. Saturdays, when it offers a church service.
It serves lunch on Wednesdays and dinner on Saturdays.
Church leaders maintain that the revised operation complies with county rules. They said the church’s attorney advised them that serving food is permissible because potluck lunches are part of Sunday services.
“We don’t see this as social services,” Dunlap said. “This is a part of our ministry. This is our congregation.”
Whether the reduced schedule satisfies county zoning requirements remains unresolved.
Dunlap, who moved to the area from Memphis, Tennessee, in 2014, is a window and door installation contractor. For the past three years, his entire family has been involved in the Remnant Cafe.
His wife, Stefanie Dunlap, helps in the kitchen.
Their two homeschooled sons, ages 8 and 5, also help at the church. The older son helps in the clothes closet, another service that has continued.
How was the complaint against Remnant Church filed?
The code enforcement case was prompted by an Aug. 24 call from Christine Nordstrom, a resident of Ashton Enclave Condo Association, which is located on the south side of Ashton Road, essentially across the street from Remnant Cafe and just north of a 1.9-acre drainage retention area owned by Sarasota County.
Construction on the six-home complex started after Tammy Burns started the outreach at Remnant Cafe but the complex wasn’t fully occupied until 2021.
In December 2021,ABC7 ran a TV spot in which Dan Nagel, pastor of Majestic Ministries of Christ Church, which occupied a 1.66-acre parcel just west of Ashton Enclave, said homeless people were littering on the grounds, defecating on the property and stealing power for cell phone chargers.
Nordstrom said criticism directed at Nagel on Facebook after the broadcast made many residents reluctant to discuss homeless people trespassing on their properties.
Nordstrom said she called after she and her neighbors grew tired of incidents involving homeless people breaking into their lanais, sleeping under elevated porch decks and defecating in the drainage channel separating the complex from county-owned property.
Nordstrom said repeated calls to the church and the medical office of Dr. Frank Burns, who is also a physician, went unanswered.
Tammy Burns and Dunlap both said only one recent message was found.
The church said it uses a cloud-based phone system to track voicemail and text messages.
Tammy Burns previously acknowledged one instance at Ashton Enclave from several years ago, when a person she described as mentally ill broke into the easternmost of the six homes and was arrested.
What legal options does Remnant Church have?
There are two legal options available to Remnant Church.
One involves going through the zoning process in an attempt to have the church be rezoned as commercial and then receive a special exception to operate Remnant Cafe.
The other involves the code enforcement compliance process, which involves a hearing before a special magistrate, which is the avenue the church said it plans to pursue.
“We still personally believe that we have the right to do this so we’re going to follow through on the system,” Burns said.
How do the Remnant Cafe service cuts affect homeless people?
When Stefanie Dunlap asked for someone to share their story with the media, Nicole Byrd stepped forward.
Byrd travels to Remnant Church from Manatee County, a longer trip than most attendees make from downtown Sarasota.
Byrd, 45, and her adult children — an 18-year-old son and a 19-year-old daughter — take a bus from Manatee County to downtown Sarasota, then board a Remnant Church bus.
“The main reason we come is for the meal and for the word of God,” Byrd said. “This place has been very beneficial for my mental health."
"We are trying to find a place to sleep and a place to live and a place to work all at the same time," she said. "It’s a weird process, what comes first, the cart or the horse.”
Byrd and her children moved to the area 14 years ago along with her mother who had retired.
Byrd said she had previously done some freelance writing and marketing and worked as a bookkeeper for small businesses.
“Mainly, I was a caregiver for my mother,” said Byrd, who, along with her children, lived with her mom. "She was 78 last year when she passed.”
“The living situation that we were in, I was not able to continue to pay it,” Byrd added.
She learned about Remnant Church and Remnant Cafe about two months ago.
Byrd said the loss of shower and laundry services is significant for her.
While Turning Points in Manatee County and Resurrection House in downtown Sarasota offer both services, Byrd said “those places are really tough.”
“To get those services, you would have to stay all day and wait,” she added.
Byrd said she won’t try to do laundry at either Turning Points or Resurrection House, so she’ll have to save money and visit a commercial laundromat.
“It’s another resource that’s gone,” Byrd said. “There’s no replacement that’s not already full.”
Byrd said Remnant Cafe provided those services in a positive atmosphere.
“Everyone is so nice and non-judgmental, so I can sit there for a minute and decompress and remember my goals — instead of just the runaround I’ve been on."
“My goals are home ownership,” she continued. “I would love to send my children to college if they want to go to college.”
Both are high school graduates considering further education or a trade such as electrical work, plumbing or carpentry, Byrd said.
“We’re still going day by day to see what can arise, what doors open and what doors close,” Byrd said. “This type of situation can happen to anyone and the only time it’s unfortunate is if you quit. So we’ll be a success story.”
Earle Kimel primarily covers local governments in Sarasota County as well as land development and environmental issues for the Herald-Tribune. Follow him on Facebook, and X. He can be reached by email at earle.kimel@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota church serves homeless people after zoning violation
