Providers say more investment needed to address homelessness in Morgantown

While supporters of Morgantown’s new camping ban targeting homeless people say one of its objectives is getting people into housing, homeless providers there say more investment is needed in order to meaningfully address the problem. 

The new law prohibits camping on any public property — including streets, parks and trails — and prohibits storing personal property in public areas. A spokesman for the city said officials are planning for it to go into effect Oct. 3. 

In a statement last week, city manager Kim Haws said the ordinance will support the city’s “belief that all residents should have permanent housing.” 

“Enforcing this ordinance doesn’t mean that we are being insensitive to a person’s housing instability,” she said. “Instead, we hope to use this policy as a tool to connect campers to services or organizations that can help them get off the streets and better their lives.”

Second and third violations of the law are punishable by fines of $200 and $300 and/or 30 days in jail, respectively. 

Councilman Dave Harshbarger, one of four council members who voted in support of the ban, said the law is an effort to balance the needs of vulnerable people with those of the rest of the community who want a safe, vibrant downtown. 

“Our goal is really to have adequate [housing] options so that when this goes into effect, that can be provided to people,” Harshbarger said. “Because that’s ultimately what we want — to remove people from a homeless situation into, ideally, permanent shelter moving forward, but at least temporary shelter in the interim.

Providers say there’s not enough emergency shelter beds available to house all the people who may be affected by the ban.

Project Rainbow, with 26 beds, is currently the city’s only homeless shelter operating at full capacity. Catholic Charities of West Virginia recently took over operation of a 28-bed emergency shelter. The facility has five or six people staying there now and plans to ramp up to full capacity by the end of the month, CEO Mark Phillips said. 

Officials from Morgantown Community Resources, the property owner for the emergency shelter have indicated they’re open to the possibility of developing tiny houses or shelters on the land there, but Phillips said they would “by no means” be up and running when the ordinance takes effect early next month. 

According to the latest point in time count — an annual government-mandated census of those in shelters and on the street that experts say underestimates the true number of people in homelessness — there were 100 homeless people in Monongalia County earlier this year. 

The law says that no one will be cited or face a criminal penalty unless they’ve been offered and refused alternative shelter, including a place in an emergency shelter or another place outside or inside where they may sleep overnight. 

“One of my biggest concerns is that there are not going to be places for folks to be referred to,” said Erin Shelton, project coordinator for Project Rainbow. Shelton estimates there are between 50 to 70 people staying outside not accessing shelter at all in a given week.

A spokesman for the city of Morgantown said in accordance with the law, camps may be removed once the law is in effect early next month, but no one will be cited or face a penalty unless they turn down an offer for alternative shelter. 

Haws said in the statement that the city will approach each situation with “compassion and care, giving camping violators every available chance to engage various services that will address their specific needs before any legal action takes place.”

Phillips, with Catholic Charities, said he’s sympathetic to city council members who are hearing from business and property owners about health and safety concerns, but if the council wanted to help people out of homelessness, a camping ban isn’t effective. 

“Unless there are structures that support transitioning folks from living outside, like enough emergency shelter space along with supportive housing, it just doesn’t help to continue to penalize folks for changes that they’re unable to make right now,” he said. 

The city of Morgantown and the Monongalia County Commission each gave Catholic Charities’ $165,000 to help fund its takeover of the emergency shelter. Bartlett Housing Solutions stopped operating it earlier this summer. Phillips said costs for the first year of operating the shelter will be more than $500,000. 

“I think [city officials] want to have a little bit of a ‘both and,’ where they can provide pathways for people [out of homelessness], but also crack down on folks that are setting up shop somewhere, either on public or private property,” Phillips said. “But I think that there’s more investment needed on the side of helping people to transition out of homelessness.”

Harshbarger said Morgantown police have indicated that discussion of the ban has led to some homeless people moving out of the city, though that’s not the ultimate goal of the law.

“Ultimately, there are going to be some people that say, ‘You know what, I’m going to move to a different community where I can be homeless and choose the lifestyle I want.’ And that’s fine,” he said. “That’s not necessarily a goal, but in reality, that’s going to happen. If that happens, more power to them, and best of luck. But for those that are truly homeless, that want our help, that are here in our community, we want to provide that assistance.

In passing the ordinance, Morgantown joined dozens of cities across the country that have passed or considered similar camping bans in the two months after the Supreme Court’s decision this summer upholding them. The new bans come after the United States saw an increase of 12% last year, the highest reported level since the US started doing point in time counts of homeless people in 2007.

Advocates for homeless people say camping bans not only do nothing to address homelessness, they make it worse by imposing fines, potential jail sentences and criminal records on homeless people and making it more difficult for them to get into permanent housing. 

In West Virginia, Wheeling and Parkersburg passed camping bans last year. Huntington also has a camping ban on its books. 

Phillips, whose organization describes itself as the state’s largest private provider of social services, said enforcement of camping bans looks different in each community. In Huntington, for example, enforcement is spotty, he said. Parkersburg doesn’t enforce its ban except for people who are creating a significant disturbance, he said. 

“We don’t know what it will look like in Morgantown once it goes into place,” Phillips said. “We’re not sure how officers are being instructed to enforce it.” 

Phillips said advocates want to be partners with the community to help solve issues, but they haven’t had a chance to talk with officials outside of city council meetings, he said. 

“I know that many city councilors really have a heart to try to serve the most vulnerable but it’s not going to be quick,” Phillips said. “We’re talking about 25, 30 years of increasing homelessness in these communities, mostly driven through the opioid crisis. The idea that you can have a couple city council meetings in a row where you just put forth a ban, talk about it, and then at the next one, approve it, and that’s going to make anything better? It’s not a real solution.”