If it’s any consolation to anyone in Morgantown, we’re not alone.
Last week, Parkersburg’s mayor and police chief met with the Wood County Commission, its sheriff, its prosecutor and others on homelessness.
Like Morgantown, city leaders there are receiving a growing number of complaints about the increasing number of transient people on the streets.
Any number of parallels can be drawn between that community’s woes and our own, including some there blaming the increasing number of recovery facilities.
While still others admit this is one problem you cannot arrest your way out of while recognizing the vital function recovery programs serve.
On Friday morning, Morgantown City Council plans to discuss homelessness during a special work session.
Though the meeting is open to the public in council chambers, public participation is not anticipated.
Instead, an internal discussion between council and city staff, including the city attorney and police chief, is planned.
The idea is to begin defining a work plan using available data, and laws on the books to address the problem.
In 2010, the Morgantown City Council and the Monongalia County Commission formed the Homelessness Task Force.
In March 2013, it released a 22-page plan to reduce homelessness in the area. Among what it learned was that the main cause of homelessness is lack of affordable housing and most people who are homeless are not visible and “are quite different from the stereotype many have, based on whom they see on the street.”
The report is available online at Morgantown.wv. gov under Government/Task Forces/Homelessness Task Force and a link to Community-Wide Plan to Reduce Homelessness.
We suspect some of this report’s finding are still relevant while others may not bed, but it would seem a likely place to start tacking this issue is by dusting this report off.
Another would be to admit there are no easy answers here, but doing little to nothing is only going to aggravate this issue further.
This problem cannot be solved solely by recovery operations, law enforcement, City Council and business owners alone.
Instead, as one recovery facility official put it, “… This is a we issue not just a Health Right issue, not just a client issue, this is for all of us, this is not just a ‘those people’ issue.”
We call on our public official to start meeting with officials in other local communities, local recovery program coordinators and nonprofits that help the homeless.
Obviously, in the near future town hall meetings with the public should also be scheduled.
Ultimately, this issue boils down to a societal problem. That is, the entire community’s problem.
