NEWSCHANNEL 5 Investigates Church's Claim of Helping the Homeless

Two ministers convicted for stealing members' food stamps

MCALLEN - They go to street corners across the Valley, asking for donations to help their church.

But, they're not from the Valley. They're from San Antonio, and they're collecting for New Life Church.

It's a spin-off of the "Deeper Life Church" out of Florida.

A lawyer for the group says they help homeless people turn their lives around. They claim to take in addicts and help them clean up.

NEWSCHANNEL 5 looked into the church, we found two of the church's ministers were convicted of felony fraud for taking food stamps from its members in 1999.

The church uses the homeless people it's supposed to be helping to collect more money.

The owners live in a mansion in Florida and own five cars and a private jet.

When we went to find where the people who actually serve the church live, we found a dilapidated building, with holes in the walls and piles of trash everywhere.

Conditions were so bad, Child Protective Services actually removed six children from church-owned housing in 2003.

One former member we spoke with tells NEWSCHANNEL 5, if they refuse to beg for money for the church, they're kicked out of the property.

"They not a Christian church for the homeless. They don't do nothing for us," she says.

In 2004, when NEWSCHANNEL 5 first investigated the New Life Church, city leaders in San Antonio promised to do something about the church's practices.

But nothing's changed. In fact, the city's new homeless service administrator isn't even aware of the problem.

Following our investigation, the New Life Church members packed up and left the Valley.