MORGANTOWN — A task force formed to address the Diamond Village homeless encampment off Greenmont’s Pennsylvania Avenue has set a preliminary goal of getting 10 people into housing by July 3.
The group, which includes the property owners and representatives from the city of Morgantown and Monongalia County as well as various organizations like Bartlett House, United Way, Milan Puskar Health Right, Our Future West Virginia and the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness, held its first meeting on Tuesday behind closed doors in Morgantown City Council chambers.
The plan coming out of that meeting is to get the people currently staying at the camp into housing and then removing it.
The group wants to avoid turning the camp into a defacto staging area.
“The task force agreed with the owners of the property that this situation was temporary and we were moving those individuals out, with support, as quickly as possible,” Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom said.
Dani Ludwig, a peer recovery coach with Milan Puskar Health Right, is at the camp daily. While the numbers fluctuate, she said there are about 22 regular inhabitants.
Ludwig, along with Liira Raines of Our Future West Virginia, compiled a list of 17 people who currently want to be housed. That list was passed on to the task force.
“There are 17 individuals on the list who want to go and some of those are couples. So I’m hopeful maybe we can get all 17 in this first group of units,” Ludwig said.
A lack of identification will be one of the major hurdles. While individuals can enter Bartlett House without ID, landlords require it.
The housing first model used by WVCEH, Bartlett House and others focuses on getting people into permanent housing, then helping them address the issues that have been stumbling blocks in their past.
“The issue is going to be the IDs,” Ludwig said. “We have made appointments now that our DMV has opened back up to get people IDs. It’s going to be a process, but hopefully we can get things lined up in a timely fashion so we can get people into housing.”
A press release issued by the city indicated people can reach out to Rachael Coen with WVCEH at rachaelcoen@wvceh.org to donate household items like plates, eating utensils, cookware, shower products, towels, cleaning supplies, garbage bags and toilet paper.
Ludwig said donations can also come in through Health Right and Friendship House.
“We had a family donate $200 yesterday to do 27 loads of laundry at the laundromat, which was awesome. It was much needed and much appreciated,” she said, noting churches and organizations like Christian Help and Catholic Charities have brought food and ice to the camp. “It’s really a community effort and people are coming together,” Ludwig said. “There’s not nearly as much negativity as there was in the beginning, when everybody first learned about it.”
Bloom said the task force intends to meet again on Monday to assess its early progress.
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