Economy Story Archives - Page 155 of 176 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

The Story of a Man Who Was Homeless for 19 Years

David Sneade works as the director and minister at a homeless shelter in downtown Charleston. He was homeless himself, off and on, for about 19 years.

“I wouldn’t be afraid to say there’s at least 2,500-3,000 homeless people just in Charleston,” said Sneade, who has spoken with many of those people.

He works with Union Mission, a Christian organization that receives no government assistance and serves about 30,000-40,000 men women and children a month across West Virginia. Union Mission receives about $7 million a year from private donations.

Sneade’s job and life’s mission often includes going out in the middle of the night, offering people water, hot soup and sandwiches.

“The people that you see in Charleston, just Charleston alone, during the day are not the same people you will see walking around Charleston at night,” he said.

On an extremely hot and muggy night a few summers ago, Sneade and another chaplain from Union Mission were handing out water and sandwiches to people. Two blocks from the shimmering gold of the state capitol building, they saw a woman who was leaning against a fence. They offered her a bottle of water and two sandwiches.

“And she asked for 3 more bottles of water and 6 sandwiches and we gave it to her and she started crying and saying now she wouldn’t have to go out and prostitute her body, she could stay home and feed her kids.”

Another night last summer, Sneade and another chaplain were on the West Side giving out water.

“One of the little kids was a little girl about 2 years old. Her mom gave her that little 8 oz. bottle of water, and she was just gulping it down, she was so dehydrated.”

That girl finished the water and began to cry. When you haven’t had enough to drink, you can’t make tears. They gave her another bottle of water, and then another. It was so hot and muggy and she was so tired, that she continued to cry as she drank about four bottles of water.

Carl is one of the chaplains at Union Mission Crossroads.

Chaplain Carl (middle) and two of the men who are staying at the Union Mission Crossroads shelter.

Sneade has worked in the Union Mission Crossroads shelter for about 10 years. And in the last two years, he says the number of people in need has increased as the economy in West Virginia has suffered many job losses. Since 2012, the number of men staying at the shelter has doubled.

Like many of those who work at the shelter, Sneade used to be homeless himself. He grew up extremely poor in a small town in Maryland. His father tried to drown him when he was just six months old.

“These people don’t know what love is. I didn’t know what love is. My father, when I was six months old, threw me in the canal. He picked me up out of the crib one morning and walked down to the edge of the canal there and threw me in and just walked away.”

As a baby, Sneade was discovered in the water and spent the next 6 months in the hospital with malnutrition and pneumonia. Not long ago, he reunited with his father.

“I love my dad. My grandmother said, ‘But he tried to kill you.’ I love my dad.”

But it took Sneade a lot of hard years living on the streets, and at least four close calls with death, before he got to this point of forgiveness. And he points out that many people who are homeless have been hurt and abused. One of the things that hurts the most, is whenever he hears people making fun of someone on the street. He knows the pain of that too.

“I guess the whole time that I’ve been saved and sober I just tell people… homeless people, they’re not the outcasts of society. I just try to hug them and tell them I love them. I believe in tough love.”

More information about Union Mission can be found on their website.

This story from West Virginia Public Radio is featured in The Charleston Gazette. Click here to view the article.

W.Va. Communities Band Together to Adopt Solar Co-Ops

As electricity rates continue to climb, some communities are coming together to try to offset their bills by harnessing the power of the sun. It’s still a pretty novel idea in West Virginia but communities in Fayette and Monroe Counties are forming solar co-ops to help make it happen.

Solar co-operative: a newer trend where communities are using their collective powers to navigate the world of solar energy.

Community Power Network

Anya Schoolman lives in Washington DC and when her son pushed her to go solar in 2007, she decided all the research and effort that went into it would be worth it if she was doing it for a whole neighborhood.

“So he went door to door with a flier and two weeks later we had 50 houses signed up and no idea what we were going to do,” Schoolman recalled. “The first group, it took us two years, we got 45 houses solarized.”

Schoolman said ever since then other neighborhoods have been coming to her, wanting to do the same thing.

She started, and became the executive director of Community Power Network. In the last year and a half the non-profit has helped 16 neighborhoods in DC, Maryland, Virginia, and now West Virginia pull together to make installing solar panels a more attainable goal.

Solar Co-Ops

How a solar co-ops work:

Join a co-op, or start one, for free.

Two communities in West Virginia, one in Monroe County and one in Fayette County, approached the Community Power Network. And each community has different ideas about how they want to go solar.

“We found out about this opportunity because we’ve been doing a lot of energy efficiency work, so we invited them here because we knew that Fayetteville would be an excellent place to find people who would be interested in this kind of thing,” said Ginger Danze of Fayette County.

Anyone who is interested signs up, for free.

About 27 residents are part of the solar co-op in Fayette County. Stiever and Schoolman met with community members to answer general questions and help community members make an informed decisions to best serve their solar needs.

There’s a competitive bidding process to choose an installer.

Schoolman and Stiever laid out and helped community members navigate through information about going solar, then they put a call out to solar installer for bids. Three companies responded with proposals (one from West Virginia, one from Maryland, and one from Ohio).

Whoever is chosen by the co-op does individualized site visits, and creates and offers custom designs to meet community needs.

Fayette County solar co-op’s decided to go with Ohio-based Appropriately Applied Technologies (AAT).

Myles Murray, the company’s president, said his proposal focused on quality materials to guarantee a maximum lifetime of the systems as well as other technical perks. But he said a key aspect of his proposal also focused on partnering with the community, hiring local contractors to install the systems.

Then you buy together in bulk, saving anywhere from 20-30 percent on cost of supplies and installation.

Both the Fayette and the Monroe County co-ops will accept any interested parties through September. The co-op members are slated to be outfitted with solar panels by the first of the year.

Some Solar Details

Community Power Network says $8,000 – 15,000 is a good estimate for an average home solar system today.

Incentives include:

A 30 percent federal tax credit – Simply put, the next time you file taxes, you can write off 30 percent of the total cost of installing solar panels. It’s an offer that may expire in 2016.
Net-metering – Written into West Virginia’s law books: For every kilowatt hour produced, your bill is reduced by that amount. If you produce more than you use, you acquire credits that can be applied to future bills.

“The solar that you produce this year might be worth five or six hundred dollars,” Schoolman said, “but electric rates have been going up and up so that same amount of power that you produce five years from now might be worth 1000 dollars. So the cumulative savings you have from the power you generate is worth three, four, five times what the system actually costs.”

Turn This Town Around Project Proposals Getting Final Polish

We continue our coverage of the Turn this Town Around Project. The towns of Grafton and Matewan are turning themselves around through a special collaborative project between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, West Virginia Focus magazine and the West Virginia Community Development Hub.

The application deadline has passed, but teams now have a two-week window to edit their proposals before funding decisions are finalized.

Grafton teams met Monday night. Amanda Yager, Director for Community Strategies for the West Virginia Community Development Hub, says there was a strong turnout of more than one hundred people. She says the teams spent a good chunk of their time helping each other through a peer exchange.

“So we asked the folks to take their application, go to another table and hand it to that other team,” says Yager. “And it was really great to see them reading over each other’s applications and you could see people writing notes and making recommendations and really just working as a whole community.

Yager says 37 teams have applied for funding in Grafton. Each team hopes to receive up to $2,500 for their community-improvement project. There is enough to fully fund 20 projects, although some teams have requested less than the maximum amount.

Yager says a lot of the applications were still very vague, so they’ve asked them to use these two weeks to provide more detail. She encourages them to talk things through with one another and reach out to her if they have questions.

The Grafton teams who will receive funding will find out at their next meeting on September 8, 2014.

Yager is working with teams in Matewan as well as Grafton and says she can sense the excitement in both communities.

“It’s definitely been building,” she says. “The momentum’s been building. I am really hopeful that that will continue, and I think that it will. And I like see that a lot of the projects have already kind of started even though they don’t necessarily have that money yet. You can see them meeting and coming up with the plans and they’re – you can really see the communities coming together.”

Struggle for Coal Continues with W.Va. Mine Layoff Plan

From Boone County banker Lee Milam's experience, each round of coal mine layoffs that hits southern West Virginia stifles his community's already-fragile…

From Boone County banker Lee Milam’s experience, each round of coal mine layoffs that hits southern West Virginia stifles his community’s already-fragile economy.
Thursday’s news was especially bitter. Coal giant Alpha Natural Resources revealed plans to shed 1,100 workers at 11 West Virginia surface mines and related operations by mid-October. In Boone, where about 2,400 people work in coal mining, two mines employing 462 people could be shuttered.

Potentially, that’s 462 fewer folks, averaging a salary of nearly $85,000, spending money around town.

“If you own a restaurant, you’re a coal miner and you just don’t know it,” said Milam, president of Whitesville State Bank. “If you’re a banker, you’re a coal miner. They’re your neighbors and your friends.”

For the many Appalachian critics of President Barack Obama’s energy policies, Alpha’s timing Thursday sparked a rallying cry. This week, the Environmental Protection Agency kicked off long-awaited public meetings on proposed limits on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, part of the administration’s plan to stem global warming.

But bigger, systematic challenges facing Appalachian coal have been percolating for years, including less-expensive natural gas, lousy markets and dwindling reserves.

National Mining Association spokesman Luke Popovich said Alpha’s plans are just “the opening shot” of the EPA rule’s impact on coal. States have until June 2016 to submit carbon-reducing plans and could have to comply in 2017, or 2018 if they partner with other states.

When Alpha partly laid blame on EPA regulation for layoff plans, it set off a chain reaction of political finger-pointing in West Virginia. Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said the state’s fears over EPA rules became reality. Several GOP congressional candidates heightened attacks against Democratic foes for being on the same side as Obama.

Outcry against Obama by West Virginia Democrats and Republicans alike is nothing new. He lost badly twice in the state, and his emissions rules have only made him more vilified.

The problems aren’t all regulatory, though.

“There’s no question that the declining use of coal for electricity generation nationwide is resulting in less production of coal,” said James M. Van Nostrand, director of West Virginia University’s Center for Energy and Sustainable Development.

Easily reachable, thick coal seams have been mostly picked clean. Competition is stiff from states such as Illinois and Wyoming, the only state producing more coal than West Virginia.

Alpha also noted that international prices of coal shipped to European power plants are at a four-year low, while prices for coal used to make steel declined more than 20 percent in less than a year. Markets are oversupplied, Alpha said.

Coal’s decline was projected before EPA offered the emissions rule. The industry employed about 123,200 coal miners last year, almost 20,000 fewer than in 2010, according to federal Mine Safety and Health Administration figures.

Next year’s projected coal haul for Central Appalachia is supposed to dip to 113.6 million tons nationally after reaching 185 million tons in 2011, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

“I think it would be a real tragedy if working families in West Virginia wrongfully believe that if the EPA regulations stopped, then coal mining would come back,” said Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy.

The reality is a somber one in southern West Virginia’s coalfields, where many residents know no other way to make a living.

David Hodges, assistant fire chief with the Whitesville Fire Department, said many of his department’s 30 volunteers received their 60-day possible layoff notice from mines Thursday.

“There’s no other industry in southern West Virginia,” Hodges said. “We have coal. That is what we have, that’s what these guys depend on.”

Huntington Building to Become Home to Appalachian Artists

A vacant garment factory in Huntington’s Westmoreland neighborhood will be converted into apartments and a work area for artists.
Executive director Brandon Dennison of the nonprofit Coalfield Development Corp. says the group bought the former Corbin property from the Wayne County Economic Development Authority.

Coalfield provides workforce and life skills training for high school graduates from low-income areas of Wayne County. The trainees learn the construction trade by redeveloping old properties to provide affordable housing.

Dennison tells The Herald-Dispatch the nonprofit also has received a $350,000 grant from Brooklyn, N.Y.-based ArtPlace America and a $150,000 loan from Charleston-based Community Works.

The nearly 100,000-square-foot building would include allow Appalachian artists to live and work there.

EPA Hearing Puts Pittsburgh in Crosshairs of Climate Wars

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency held hearings Thursday and Friday in Pittsburgh on a proposed rule to slash greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The plan is up against serious opposition from the coal industry, but environmental groups say it doesn’t go far enough.
Competing rallies for and against the EPA’s proposed carbon rules crossed paths in Downtown Pittsburgh today.

“No planet, no jobs!” shouted those who supported the EPA proposal.

“U-M-W-A!” chanted the United Mineworkers of America and their supporters.

Mark Sunyak, 54, of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, is a retired mineworker who came to protest the rule. He said it threatened his community.

“Our jobs, our security, our families,” Sunyak said when asked why he was there. “I’m a recent retiree, my benefits may be in jeopardy.”

About three-quarters of all carbon dioxide emissions in the power sector come from burning coal. The EPA is trying to cut emissions from electric power plants by 30 percent of 2005 levels by the year 2030.

The EPA’s own analysis shows that under the plan, coal production in Appalachia would decline. But it said other energy sectors would grow, and the overall economy would benefit.

Inside the hearings, the voices of coal were evident.

Cindy Frich, a state legislator from Morgantown, West Virginia, was one of them.

“I have to admit I feel these rules are existential threat to my state,” Frich said. “We’re already having problems with our state budget. I really see problems ahead if these rules are implemented.”

Frich said she worried that coal companies would be forced into bankruptcy. And those companies pay into federal programs to clean up from legacy coal mining issues.

“If you don’t have any mines left, who’s going to be paying for that cleanup?” she asked.

Natalie Tennant, West Virginia’s Secretary of State, said the federal government needs to invest more in carbon capture and sequestration in order to keep coal jobs in West Virginia.

“We are not asking for any handouts,” Tennant said. “We simply want to use what we have to earn a living.”

Under the EPA plan, states would come up with their own plan to cut down on CO2. They could increase use of nuclear energy, renewables, or natural gas. They can also improve energy efficiency in power plants in homes and businesses.

Inside the hearings, some made a moral case for curbing carbon emissions. Scientists say carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels is causing global warming.

The Rev. Bill Thwing, with the group Creation Care Partners, said politicians and scientists have known about climate change for decades.

“But they have chosen to do nothing about it except talk, and research, and study, until now when it is almost too late,” Thwing said.

The EPA has received over 300,000 comments on the plan, which is opposed by the utility industry.

But environmental groups and public health groups are in favor of it. Scientists say global warming will increase the level of ground level ozone—which exacerbates asthma.

Julie Franks of Butler County, Pennsylvania, testified in favor of the rules. She brought her two sons who have asthma and have to spend much of the summer indoors.

“This one’s been in the ER tons and tons of times,” Franks said. “I can’t count how many times he’s been in the ER for asthmatic attacks.”

Franks said she feels for those who depend on coal. But she thinks the rules are necessary.

“We evolve—we’re supposed to evolve,” she said. “We’re supposed to evolve, and sadly, coal needs to evolve.”

The EPA’s deadline for a final version of the rule is June, 2015.