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The City Clerk of Morgantown has officially deemed an amended petition for referendum of the city’s recent public camping ban sufficient.
The City Council of Morgantown passed a camping ban in September aimed at addressing homelessness in the city by banning camping on all public property.
The ordinance expands an existing camping ban and carries up to 30 days of incarceration as the penalty for repeated violations. Violators can also face fines ranging from $200 to $500. The ordinance does require that shelter first be offered to those experiencing homelessness before a citation is issued, but there are only around 50 shelter beds for the more than 150 people estimated to be experiencing homelessness in Morgantown.
Almost as soon as the ordinance was approved by council, a formal petition to repeal the ban was filed with the city clerk’s office, and supporters began to gather hundreds of signatures. The petition process has suspended the implementation of the ordinance’s enforcement.
The initial petition was deemed insufficient by the city clerk in October after just 956 signatures were considered valid. According to the city bylaws, a petition must be signed by 10 percent of the city’s qualified voters.
An amendment to the petition was filed with the city clerk Nov. 6, and on the evening of Nov. 12 the clerk announced in an email that, “This petition includes the required number of valid signatures from at least 10 percent of the total number of qualified voters registered during the last regular City election, which amounts to 1,310.”
The certificate of sufficiency will be presented to Morgantown City Council at their next meeting on Nov. 20, where council members will have the opportunity to address the ordinance. They can choose to repeal the ordinance, or a referendum on the camping ban will be placed on the city’s election ballot in April. The ordinance will remain suspended until the election.
This is the latest action in a flurry of similar activity against public camping in West Virginia. On Nov. 7, the Clarksburg City Council approved its own camping ban that is slated to take effect in January.
