GASTONIA, N.C. -- The city of Gastonia has filed an injunction to shut down a halfway house that serves recovering addicts.

The residents and organizers of Faith, Hope and Love in the Smyre community said they can’t change the city’s mind.

“If they shut down, I'll be back on the street homeless, and eventually I will start back to drugs,” said resident Ted Jarrett.

Jarrett, 50, said he has used drugs since he was 14. He’s been living at the halfway house for four months.

“It's the first time in my life that I have been free of drugs,” he said.

The operators started with a house for the homeless five years ago, and then two years ago they made rooms in the basement of a church. They even have a computer lab.

But according to the injunction filed by Gastonia city attorneys, what they don't have is a fire alarm system or proper wiring, and they don't meet the code requirements for a halfway house in the middle of a neighborhood.

Pastor Moses Colbert, who started the halfway house, said he wants the city to just let him do his work.

“The right thing is to let us minister. The wrong thing is to run us out of town,” he said.

Colbert said they have tried to move they halfway house, but they have been blocked. He said his clients have criminal past, but they are no longer criminals.

“These people have souls that need delivering too,” he said.

He has two weeks to explain to a judge why the ministry shouldn't be shut down.