A lawsuit the nonprofit House of Hope filed against the City of Dickson nearly three years ago was recently settled after a Dickson City Council vote this month.

The settlement amount was $20,000, which was to pay for The House of Hope’s legal fees, said Dickson city attorney Jerry Smith.

The House of Hope was seeking $300,000 based on the organization’s leadership belief that the city prevented the nonprofit from being able to “fulfill its religious mission to minister to the needs of those whom it serves” by voting against a homeless shelter in the Downtown Dickson area.

In the lawsuit, the organization’s leadership said the plan was to provide faith-based counseling, a prayer room, food, clothing, shelter and transportation to “homeless and needy individuals.”

In October of 2014, the council voted against rezoning an area downtown as high density residential, which would have allowed the House of Hope to locate in the former Jackson Medical Clinic building at the corner of Church Street and East Rickert Ave.

At the time, Mayor Don Weiss Jr. said the council was not against the House of Hope or its mission.

“It’s about whether changing that piece of property from B-2 to R-3 is in the best interest of the growth plan, the zoning map, and downgrading a B-2 zone to an R-3 zone.” Weiss said. “I think that’s the question this council has to ask themselves.”

Weiss said the council changed its zoning ordinance “so that the House of Hope could find a zone they could go into” outside of the primary downtown business district.

At the city’s May 6 meeting this year, Smith said the city’s insurance company determined that it was in Dickson’s best interest to approve the lawsuit settlement. Smith noted that the $20,000 is “considerably less than the amount the plaintiff’s lawyers had been seeking in this case.”

In court documents filed in the U.S District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, the City of Dickson’s rebuttal of the lawsuit allegations includes the following:

“The City’s zoning regulation did not substantially burden Plaintiff’s exercise of religion because the regulation does not completely prevent Plaintiff from engaging in religiously mandated activity or require participation in an activity prohibited by religion.”

About House of Hope

House of Hope was founded by Debbie Mitchell, of Dickson, following her husband’s death in an accident at the former QuadGraphics plant in Dickson County in 2010.

Using money from a memorial fund set up by QuadGraphics’ employees, Mitchell started helping the homeless in Dickson County, she writes on the nonprofit’s Facebook page. Since that time, the organization has become a federally-recognized nonprofit, formed a board, taken over the Soup for Souls program and created the Hike for the Homeless fundraiser, in addition to its day-to-day operations.

Following the council’s vote in 2014, Mitchell writes that the organization has looked at various buildings in Dickson County for a permanent home but, according to her, has met resistance in Burns and White Bluff.

“We are the homeless homeless shelter,” she writes.

For more information about the House of Hope, go the organization’s Facebook page (search: The House of Hope and New Beginnings), or call 615-440-8905.