Statewide Camping Ban Advances As Morgantown Prepares To Vote On Local Ban

Over the past year, camping bans have started popping up at both the local and state level. A camping ban bill making its way through the legislature has some Morgantown residents feeling frustrated.

In September, the Morgantown City Council approved a camping ban ordinance that makes it a criminal offense to camp or store personal belongings on public or private property without authorization. Similar bans have also been approved in Wheeling, Bluefield, Clarksburg and other municipalities in recent years.

But by November, voters in Morgantown successfully petitioned to postpone the ban and put it to a vote on the local ballots April 29. 

Now the results of that vote could be superseded by a statewide camping ban making its way through the state legislature.

Del. Geno Chiarelli, R-Monongalia, is the lead sponsor of House Bill 2382. His district encompasses only a small portion of Morgantown, but does include the county shelter. 

Chiarelli told West Virginia Public Broadcasting last week that the citizens of his district, who mostly live in the county, do not have a say in Morgantown’s ordinance.

“So I’m their voice when it comes to being in Charleston, and I’m happy to do it,” he said.

Like local ordinances passed locally in Morgantown, Wheeling and other communities over the past year, Chiarelli’s bill escalates from a warning for the first violation, up to a $500 fine for a third violation and even jail time. The statewide camping ban requires that alternate shelter be offered to someone before any criminal penalty can be imposed. But unlike Morgantown, most communities in West Virginia do not have established shelters.

House Bill 2382 passed the House of Delegates March 11. Thursday night, it was taken up by the Senate Judiciary committee where Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, reintroduced language that would allow law enforcement to offer transportation to violators of the ban.

“I think instead of being punished, I think they should be given the alternative of accepting transportation to an area outside of West Virginia that has excess capacity for providing services for those experiencing homelessness, need for addiction services or need for mental health services, giving priority to a location near their home,” Tarr said in drafting the amendment. 

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which conducts a count of people experiencing homelessness annually in January, about 1,800 people were homeless in West Virginia in 2024.

Mark Phillips, president and CEO of Catholic Charities West Virginia, told the committee that the majority of the people his organization serves are West Virginians.

“It changes from place to place, so places that are a little bit closer to borders obviously you see more individuals,” he said. “The most recent statistic I can give you our emergency winter shelter in Morgantown, 90% of individuals were from West Virginia.”

Phillips estimated that in winter, when the most number of shelters and beds are open, the state has about 30 shelters with an average of 30 to 40 beds per shelter. 

“So the top level estimate in the winter time, we’re talking about somewhere near 600, 650 beds. During the summer time, that’s cut about half,” he said.

Tarr’s amendment was adopted and the bill was advanced to the full Senate.

Brian Butcher represents Morgantown’s seventh ward on the City Council, and is the co-lead of West Virginia Housing Justice. The group is organizing events leading up to the April election to get out the vote against the local camping ordinance. 

Butcher said he wants more frank discussions amongst lawmakers about how to address the material issues of homelessness.

“It would be really nice if we could just get back to working together on solutions that we’ve identified that really work, instead of just focusing on this one thing and trying to fight against it or fight about it,” he said.

Last summer the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson that camping bans do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. 

Butcher said there are simpler, more humane actions that governments at every level could be taking to address homelessness immediately. They range from creating a housing voucher program, like one recently launched in Pittsburgh, to simply providing better access to basic services.

“That’s in addition to all the kind of low hanging fruit that we could be doing, like locker programs, bathrooms for people outside to kind of alleviate the immediate things that people are seeing out on the street,” Butcher said.

House Bill 2382 is progressing through the Senate, and a camping ban appears likely to become state law before the end of the legislative session April 12. That would nullify Morgantown’s vote on April 29.

Leslie Nash is an attorney at Mountain State Justice. She said that prospect is incredibly frustrating, but doesn’t make the efforts against the ban futile.

“I think us coming out and showing how vehemently we oppose this ordinance is really important to us as a community,” Nash said. “I think it’s important to folks who are unhoused to see that their neighbors don’t agree with this, we do not think this is right, and we’re going to do what we can until we are bypassed by our elected representatives who maybe don’t care what their constituents think.”

The statewide camping ban bill is scheduled to be read a first time in the Senate Monday, March 24 and could be on the governor’s desk next week.