Clarification, Sept. 10, 2025, at 4:52 p.m. This story has been updated to clarify that the city of Brunswick retains the right to enforce any nuisances or actions that threaten public health and safety.
FaithWorks Ministry, which operates The Well, has won its fight to run its homeless shelter in downtown Brunswick after a contentious backlash with the city’s business community sparked a two-year legal battle.
Mediation ordered by federal judge Lisa Wood in the U.S. Southern District ended in late July, and the agreement was signed Wednesday night. The settlement allows the faith-based organization to continue supplemental services for the more than six dozen people who visit the shelter on average each day.
“We want to move forward, we want to do some things that will be an example to other communities that face the same issues, and every community does,” said Faithworks leader Rev. Wright Culpepper. “We want to set an example for the communities on how to respond and how to make a positive impact.”
The legal struggle started in 2023 when the city of Brunswick tried to close The Well by changing zoning ordinances and then filing a nuisance suit in local court. FaithWorks countersued in federal court, saying that the authorities were violating its religious freedom by trying to interfere with work conducted on church-owned land that the group said was core to its Christian beliefs.
The Well operates via private donations and does not receive any government funding.
Required training
The 12-hour mediation overseen by Judge Brian Epps from Augusta requires the city to dismiss its nuisance lawsuit against FaithWorks in the Glynn County Superior Court. The agreement also mandates that all members of the city council and the mayor attend one live, interactive, educational training on the substantive provisions of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) within 90 days. The city must also report compliance with the settlement within a year.
An accompanying settlement was also reached within the county’s court. That settlement allows The Well to operate at its current location with no requirement to seek a conditional use permit, and it will enable The Well to operate as an emergency shelter when inclement weather is declared.
The city retains the right to enforce any nuisances or actions that threaten public health and safety.
The Well voluntarily shut down for 65 days in 2023 to address concerns from the downtown community that its clients were causing public safety issues. It strengthened background checks for those seeking services, but Mayor Cosby Johnson threatened to seek a court order to shut down The Well as a nuisance property if it reopened. Johnson cited voters’ concerns as the reason.
The Brunswick Police Chief at the time, Kevin Jones, pushed back against the perception that the day shelter was a public safety hazard.
Acrimony between Faithworks and the city crescendoed, according to federal court documents filed in December 2024, when Johnson said that he would allow The Well to continue operations if the Faithworks leader, Rev. Wright Culpepper, stepped down.
Culpepper, who spoke to The Current on Thursday, said he is glad the litigation is over, but it has had a significant impact on operations, particularly financially.
He estimates that since the city’s nuisance lawsuit was filed in 2023, the nonprofit organization lost nearly $1 million because the organization could not apply for grant funding while the lawsuits continued. He also said that the organization has lost many donors due to controversy over the facility being a hub for crime.
“I think a lot of people think that the homeless or those with behavioral health issues are perpetrators of crime; in reality, they’re more likely to be the victims of crime,” he said.
Culpepper says that this is because of their increased exposure, which has only been exacerbated by the recent growth of Brunswick.
“There used to be places for people to be at night, such as warehouses; there were empty storefronts,” Culpepper said. “Some business people would let people be of the element, or so to speak, at night, but those places have pretty much gone away over the last 10 years.”
Culpepper believes that those ad hoc shelters have not been replaced, so he hopes that The Well can fill the gap as they ultimately aim to expand their services to be 24/7.
“Some people have found themselves in a situation where they were addicted or they were kicked out, either by their spouse or significant other, roommate or whatever and those people can get off the street pretty quickly,” Culpepper said. “Others have lost their ID and need help that takes a little bit longer, but usually can turn things around fairly quickly, especially if they’re connected to the right resource.
”And then there are those who, because of their mental health, they’re likely to be homeless until they die, and some people have experienced traumatic brain injury, but they are still God’s children and should be treated with dignity.”