Opponents Gather Signatures To Repeal Morgantown Camping Ban 

Last month, Morgantown’s City Council passed a camping ban aimed at addressing homelessness in the city by banning camping on all public property. 

Ward 3 Councilmember Louise “Weezy” Michael proposed the ordinance. She previously told West Virginia Public Broadcasting she was responding to, “the legitimate complaints of our constituents.”

“There’s a lot of people staying out in these camps near our downtown and on our rail trails and near our rivers,” Michael said. “And it’s becoming a public safety and a health issue, and that’s mostly why I took up this ban.”

Throughout discussions spanning several meetings, citizens repeatedly warned council they were prepared to mount a formal opposition. An unofficial petition had already garnered more than 500 signatures before the end of the Sept. 3 council meeting where the ordinance was approved.

Once the ban passed, a formal petition to repeal the ban was filed with the city clerk’s office, and supporters have been gathering hundreds of signatures ever since.

The citywide anti-camping ordinance is scheduled to go into effect 30 days after adoption, Friday Oct. 4. But on that same day, citizens plan to present their official petition to repeal the ban. 

As the Oct. 4 deadline has drawn closer, petition organizers and volunteers have ramped up efforts with door to door canvassing and at public events, even putting on an event of their own.

This past Thursday, Sept. 26, local musicians played on the stage of music venue 123 Pleasant Street, while local artists displayed art for sale by the door. 

Tommy Thompson III put together the benefit event at 123 Pleasant Street in part to collect signatures for the petition to repeal the ordinance.

“It’s just something that I can do,” he said. “This is the way that I’m engaged. I’m an artist.” 

Thompson said he put on the event to remind city council where the power lies in the community, and because he disagrees with a policy that could punish violators with up to 30 days of incarceration and fines ranging from $200 to $500 for repeated violations.

“It’s cruel to be quite frank. It’s nothing that I’m aligned with,” Thompson said. “It’s something we can do, that we can overturn. I feel if we show that we have a majority, if we show our strength as a community, and I think an event like this can really help to show it to our city council and people in power in this town.”

Only signatures from voters registered within Morgantown’s city limits count on the official petition. So as event goers listened to local artists, they could register to vote before signing, or get help checking their registration and address.

Dwight Pavlovic came out to the concert to support the petition. He said the camping ban strikes him as a knee-jerk reaction to a complicated issue.

“Morgantown, obviously, is a focal point in the state,” Pavlovic said. “If people are in a rough spot, if they’re having trouble, you know, where would you go? It makes sense to come to Morgantown. If Morgantown has a disproportionate ‘problem’ compared to other places, it’s just because the onus is more on us, because we have so much more than other communities in a similar position in West Virginia.”

According to the Morgantown City bylaws, an ordinance can be repealed if 10 percent of the city’s registered voters – around 1,300 people – sign a formal petition. 

If a petition for referendum is filed, the ordinance is suspended while it’s decided whether the petition is sufficient or not, meaning the signatures are verified to be from 10 percent of registered voters. If the petition is sufficient, the ordinance is suspended while the City Council reviews the ordinance and decides whether to repeal it. If the ordinance is not repealed, the suspension stays in effect, and a referendum on the ordinance will be held at the April 2025 election.

Thompson’s event also raised money for the Morgantown Coalition for Housing Action, better known as MOCHA, a mutual aid organization that has been central to circulating the petition.

Brianna Mills has been pounding the pavement, canvassing with MOCHA. 

“It’s really grueling work, and it helps us get food while we’re out here trying to get signatures,” she said. “They do a lot of good, too. They hand out a lot of free stuff that will help people out on the street. So all of that costs something, so some of the donations will help with that.”

Mills said similar anti-camping policies have been shown to not work in other places, and petition organizers believe Morgantown will be no exception. 

“People who are unhoused, that can’t afford this first of all, and putting them in jail is not really helping the situation,” Mills said. “So it doesn’t seem like it’s good policy. And in other places where this has been enacted, it just hasn’t worked. You know, people want this to light a fire under the unhoused people’s butts, to go get resources and get help, but I think they’re just missing, you know, a piece of this. So this is just not the way, in my opinion.”

Beyond canvassing door to door, official petition sheets are available at local downtown businesses including a coffee shop, a bakery and a new bookstore.

This past Saturday, volunteers with MOCHA stood at the entrance to the local farmer’s market soliciting signatures from passing patrons.

Keeley Wildman, an organizer with MOCHA, said she believes they’re getting close to their goal.

“This final push in the past week has been really beneficial,” Wildman said. “I feel like what had maybe started as a slow start is now really picking up, and we’re getting very close. We’re aiming to have even more than 1,300 just to kind of account for any that may be tossed out because signatures don’t match.”

Ultimately the goal of the petition is to repeal the ordinance, and Wildman said there are other actions she hopes city council will take.

“Like installing lockers for folks to use, installing public restrooms, you know, just to take care of everyone down here,” she said. “But also getting at least a day shelter and warming shelter for people to go to. We need more shelters, that is kind of the bottom line. Creative solutions to achieve that from our city council members will be nice, because there are lots that they could do. They can collaborate with other agencies. They can kind of get more involved in the planning aspect of that, and we need it desperately.”

At full capacity, Morgantown can count on about 50 beds from two emergency shelters to offer the more than 150 people estimated to be experiencing homelessness in Morgantown.

The solution to homelessness is complex, and so is the resolution to the current ordinance. Once the signatures are submitted Friday, the city clerks will have 20 days to certify them and the petition. Which means the city council likely won’t take action on the ordinance until November.