Ben Conley contributed to this report.
A 23-year-old woman died of an apparent overdose at the Diamond Village homeless encampment on Tuesday night.
Rebecca Colgan was pronounced dead at 10:09 p.m., according to the Morgantown Police Department.
Officers responded to Diamond Village, located next to Decker’s Creek off of Pennsylvania Avenue, for a possible drug overdose at 9:25 p.m.
Officers found Colgan non-responsive and on her back. She was not breathing, had no pulse and a used needle was lying next to her with fresh blood in the syringe, the MPD said.
The person who reported the overdose told officers that Narcan was administered and CPR was performed until help arrived. Officers took over CPR until Mon EMS and Morgantown Fire Department medics arrived.
According to the MPD, Colgan’s body was sent to the medical examiner to determine the cause of death and the incident is under investigation.
The MPD has responded to 23 reported overdose calls and 67 assist EMS calls, which do not necessarily involve overdoses, Morgantown Communications Director Andrew Stacy said. Four of the overdose calls were near Diamond Village, Stacy said.
Closing the camp:
The encampment moved onto city property in mid-July after being forced off an adjacent piece of private property, where it was located as early as March.
About a month later, on Aug. 18, Interim City Manager Emily Muzzarelli laid out a plan to register the inhabitants of the camp, find those individuals housing offers, post a two-week notice and clear the site.
As of Oct. 9, there were 18 individuals at the encampment, 11 of which were registered with the city.
On Oct. 20, city officials, Morgantown Police and representatives from Bartlett House visited the camp and asked anyone not on the registration list to go the Bartlett House shelter, which is now open 24 hours.
On Wednesday, Stacy said that of the original 25 people registered at the camp, eight have been housed, three have offers but have not met with case workers and one has repeatedly declined housing. Of the remaining 13, four are incarcerated and five have left the camp.
“Four others we are trying to confirm if they are still around and need housing,” Stacy said.
Bartlett House Executive Director Keri DeMasi noted that the 24-hour shelter is not considered a housing offer, but the hours were extended as part of an effort to make it a more viable and attractive option as the city moved toward clearing the encampment.
She explained that a housing offer is an apartment, either in the community or at Bartlett House’s West Run facility.
“We have consistently been housing people every week since we started working on this. We were able to house two people last week,” DeMasi said. “It’s been a process, most definitely.”
She said there are currently units ready and waiting. The security deposits are paid, as is the first months rent. Individuals are also hooked up with case workers in effort to help the transition stick.
Stacy said Colgan was not on the city’s Diamond Village registration, nor was she registered with Bartlett House or the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness.
Liira Raines, with Justice for Diamond Village and formerly with Our Future West Virginia, said that since the Oct. 20 visit from the city, the numbers in the camp had dwindled to three inhabitants on Monday night and one on Tuesday night.
She said that she and other volunteers had begun moving items out of the camp for future use.
“I planned to make the announcement that it was pretty much closed for the time being,” she said, noting hours later she got the call about the overdose.
“I’d seen Becca earlier that day,” Raines said. “What frankly enrages me about the whole thing is that all along I’ve been telling the city that if you keep doing this and you break up the encampment people are going to die out there with no one to respond to overdoses. I didn’t expect it to happen within hours. There was nobody down there. Someone came along, but it was too late.”
Raines also said the number of unhoused individuals in the city is on the rise.
“I’m seeing new faces across town every day and I hear it from everybody. It’s pretty obvious that the system here now is overwhelmed and I wish it would just admit that so we could figure out what we need to do,” Raines said.
In the meantime, Stacy said the city plans to continue assisting its partners in addressing the needs of the city’s unhoused population.
“We will continue to work with WVCEH and Bartlett House to make sure all those experiencing homelessness are given opportunities for shelter and support,” Stacy said.
