Joel Osteen on Delaying in Opening Doors: ‘They Didn’t Need Us as a Shelter’

The Paster of Houston’s megachurch Lakewood, Joel Osteen, has been under scrutiny for delaying opening his doors to those in need. In an appearance on the Today show, he tried to defend these claims.

“[The city] didn’t need us as shelter then,” Osteen said. “We coordinate with them all the time. If we needed to be a shelter, we certainly would’ve been a shelter right when they first asked.”

Lakewood holds around 16,000 people. “We work very closely with the city,” he added. “Four miles down the road, the city established its biggest shelter with rooms for thousands. With beds, kitchen supplies — everything they need. Security. … Once they filled up, never dreaming we’d have this many displaced people, they asked us to become a shelter. And we said, ‘Hey, we’d love to be a shelter. That’s what Lakewood is all about.’”

On Saturday, the criticism began, and by Tuesday, Joel announced on Twitter that the church’s doors were opening and hundreds of volunteers went over to help with collecting items and supplies. Today, nearly 300 people are taking shelter.

“Our church doors have always been open. In fact we took people in right when the storm started to recede, which was just a day or two after the big storm hit,” he said on Today.

Hurricane Joel Osteen Lakewood