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Updated on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024 at 1:45 a.m.
The Morgantown City Council voted 4 to 3 to enact a camping ban in a new article of City Code entitled “Camping on Public Property” at their Sept. 3 meeting.
The vote was cast after 1 a.m. in a meeting that stretched to close to seven hours in length, including more than five hours of public comment overwhelmingly against the ban.
Note: This is a developing story and will be updated.
Morgantown’s City Council is poised to pass a camping ban aimed at addressing homelessness in the city tonight, Sept. 3.
The council voted 4 to 3 to advance a new article of City Code entitled “Camping on Public Property” at their last meeting August 20.
The ordinance would expand an existing camping ban to all public property and carries fines as high as $500 per day and up to 30 days imprisonment for repeated violations.
Ward 3 councilmember Louise “Weezy” Michael told West Virginia Public Broadcasting recently that in proposing the ban, her “intention is not, was never, to criminalize homelessness.”
“We’re just trying to get them to a point where they want to seek treatment and help and shelter, because I’ve been down to these encampments, and I just don’t want to see anybody live in these conditions,” she said.
Ward Seven Councilmember Brian Butcher has opposed the camping ban since its introduction to the council in July.
“This doesn’t stop people from sleeping outside,” Butcher said at the Aug. 20 meeting. “You’re going to create a cyclical nature, as people said, in which people are still going to be sleeping outside, only now you’ve just made it worse for them, harder for them to get housing.”
The ordinance is written to require that shelter be offered to a homeless individual on first contact and before further action can be taken, but advocates and service providers say there is currently not enough room at local shelters.
If approved, Morgantown will join Wheeling and Parkersburg in enacting a camping ban within city limits. Wheeling and Parkersburg both approved their camping bans in 2023.
*Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect the results of the Sept. 3 Morgantown City Council meeting.
