MORGANTOWN — The community came away from Morgantown City Council’s June 26 meeting with news that Catholic Charities West Virginia had agreed to take over operation of the Bartlett House triage shelter in Hazel’s House of Hope if the various parties could get the funding sorted out.
During Tuesday’s regular council meeting, it learned what that “if” is probably going to look like for the city and the county — at least $150,000 each.
Catholic Charities President and CEO Mark Phillips said it will likely take between $450,000 and $500,000 to operate the shelter for one year.
Right now, the agency has a commitment from the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness for roughly $167,000. This is the state money Bartlett House didn’t receive this year for the first time in decades.
That loss was essentially the last straw for the already struggling nonprofit and prompted the decision to close the area’s longest running emergency shelter.
Phillips said he’s working with WVCEH to see exactly how those funds can be reallocated to another agency.
“On the city and county side, we’re looking to make up that additional $300,000 to $350,000,” he said.
“Operationally, we’re ready to go. We have an individual who we’ve already spoken to who has the capacity to run that facility. We would work with Bartlett more than likely to pull some of their current staff over and hire them as Catholic Charities staff … We’re ready to go as long as we can piece the funding together.”
Phillips said Catholic Charities would come in with a one-year agreement but prefers a multiyear plan due to the time and effort it will take to get everything in place.
“We’re really looking for that state, city, county support for that first year, and then we would work in that first year to secure commitments from individuals and foundations for out years. Year one to year three, the commitment from the city and county would decrease as we were able to find private support to fill in those gaps,” Phillips said. “We think it’s there.”
Two members of the Monongalia County Commission attended the meeting specifically to hear Phillips’ presentation.
Commissioner Tom Bloom said he’s looking forward to working with Catholic Charities to keep the shelter open.
“It was important to me to hear that they want to move quickly and are willing to accept reimbursement rather than an up-front check,” Bloom said.
“Even though the price tag is high for the first year, they are not expecting the city and county to continue this funding each year, and they plan on working on state and federal grants immediately.”
