MORGANTOWN — The March 1 announcement of statewide emergency shelter funding from the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness was a game changer for two local shelters for exact opposite reasons.
Following a new, competitive funding process, the WVCEH issued a list of 11 shelters to which a total of $1.85 million will be distributed in the coming fiscal year.
The Bartlett Housing Solutions emergency shelter at Hazel’s House of Hope didn’t make the cut, meaning the roughly $166,000 the shelter has received annually for the last 15 years or more would not be provided.
The blow was more than Bartlett Housing Solutions could withstand. The organization has announced it will close the 28-bed shelter, at least temporarily, by June 30.
But shelter funds are coming to Morgantown.
The Rainbow House, a new emergency shelter and safe space for unsheltered LGBTQ+ individuals, will receive $250,000.
“We have the capacity for about 21 beds, but with staffing right now we’re at 10. We’re operating right now just on community donations until July when the grant funding kicks in,” Brian Butcher said.
Butcher is a member of The Rainbow House Board of Directors as well Morgantown City Council.
“We’ve had more need than that … It’s just with the limited volunteer and staff hours right now, it’s not feasible.”
While Butcher said the shelter is open to anyone who needs it, there is an application process, which is spelled out at projectrainbowwv.com.
“It has to be open to everyone. It’s just that part of the policy is that it’s an LGBTQ safe space. It’s gender-affirming and LGBTQ-affirming in terms of how the policy is structured,” he said. “It’s a low-barrier shelter except for the barrier that you need to be accepting of LGBTQ folks.”
The shelter is a response to feedback from within the un-housed community indicating there were many people who felt unsafe in regular shelter environments.
“That’s not necessarily anyone’s fault. It’s just that in providing low-barrier shelters you create environments that are not always safe for LGBTQ people. That’s just the way it is.”
The Rainbow House location is not publicly shared.
Butcher said that wasn’t the original plan, but a decision that was made shortly after the shelter opened and staff found out clients were being targeted “and people were trying to figure out where they were.”
“It’s just like all other kinds of directly targeted shelter spaces. Rape and domestic violence shelters are another example. Sometimes they’re strictly for women and they don’t publicize their location,” he said. “I understand why people have those questions, but obviously people aren’t going to raise those same concerns for domestic violence shelters. It would look bad to do that. This wasn’t something we even anticipated we’d have to do, but it turned out to be necessary.”
He reiterated that the disbursement of shelter dollars was the result of the WVCEH’s new competitive grant process and that funding for the two local shelters was not an either/or proposition.
“It’s going to have to be a group lift from the entire community to ensure we’re still serving that clientele,” he said of the closure of the Bartlett House shelter.
“It’s not a thing I ever wanted to see. I want them to succeed. I’ve had criticisms of their practices, but that’s why I wanted to work closely with them, to help them succeed and do the things I felt like they needed to do.”
TWEET @DominionPostWV
