Homelessness Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

HUD Sends $12.3 Million For W.Va. Affordable Housing

The U.S. Senate allocated more than $12.3 million to affordable housing projects in West Virginia, taking part in an effort to support individuals experiencing homelessness across the state.

With a new slate of funding, federal lawmakers hope to address homelessness by strengthening affordable housing options in states like West Virginia.

The U.S. Senate allocated a new $12,368,832 to West Virginia housing authorities through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This money will go toward 28 organizations supporting housing access across the state.

The largest amount of funding will be granted to the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness in Bridgeport, with a total of more than $2.5 million.

HUD regularly invests in community housing organizations across the country, and last year granted housing authorities in West Virginia $17.6 million to modernize public housing projects.

In a press release Wednesday, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., expressed his support for the new funding, and for housing projects in West Virginia at large.

“Every West Virginian deserves a roof over their head and a warm, safe place to sleep at night,” Manchin said. “I’m pleased HUD is investing more than $12.3 million into these important organizations that support West Virginians who are in need.”

The following housing authorities will receive portions of the new funding:

West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness: $2,662,938
Huntington West Virginia Housing Authority: $1,599,853
Raleigh County Community Action Association: $1,020,211
Cabell-Huntington Coalition for the Homeless: $774,441
Telamon Corporation / Renewal Project: $579,389
Huntington City Mission: $573,735
Clarksburg Housing Authority: $467,839
Task on Domestic Violence, HOPE: $453,942
Covenant House, Charleston: $414,557
YWCA Charleston: $364,510
Bartlett House, Morgantown: $364,163
Kanawha Valley Collective: $336,945
Goodwill Industries of Kanawha Valley: $274,300
Branches-Domestic Violence Shelter of Huntington: $268,154
Randolph County Housing Authority: $260,564
Mountain CAP of WV, Kanawha County: $254,566
Hagerstown Goodwill Industries: $235,151
Eastern Regional Family Resource Network, Moorefield: $210,038
Rape and Domestic Violence Information Center, Morgantown: $209,741
Charleston-Kanawha Housing Authority: $202,992
Shenandoah Women’s Center, Martinsburg: $121,233
Family Crisis Intervention Center, Wood County: $117,798
Young Women’s Christian Association of Wheeling: $111,726
North Central WV Community Action: $111,072
Prestera Center for Mental Health Services, Barboursville: $105,000
Catholic Charities West Virginia, Wheeling: $87,003
Southwestern Community Action Council, Huntington: $76,275
City of Wheeling: $50,000

Conversations From The State Legislature And Morgantown Welcomes Ukraine Veteran, This West Virginia Week

On this West Virginia Week, the West Virginia Legislative session is in full swing, and lawmakers have been considering a number of pieces of legislation. We’ll listen back to a few of our conversations with our guests this week on our program The Legislature Today. Also, we’ll hear from a man who recently arrived in Morgantown from the front lines in Ukraine.

On this West Virginia Week, the West Virginia Legislative session is in full swing, and lawmakers have been considering a number of pieces of legislation – from education, jobs, energy, hunger and more. We’ll listen back to a few of our conversations with our guests this week on our program The Legislature Today.

We also hear from a man who recently arrived in Morgantown from the front lines in Ukraine.

Liz McCormick is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.

West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.

Learn more about West Virginia Week.

First Encampment Cleared Under Wheeling Public Camping Ban

The City of Wheeling has cleared its first urban campsite under a new ordinance that went into effect earlier this month.

Exemptions to Wheeling’s new public camping ban were discussed at Tuesday’s city council meeting, but there was no exemption for one encampment of unhoused people.

Thursday morning, around seven people camping behind the Nelson Jordan Center were given a two-hour notice to vacate the premises.

Dr. William Mercer provides medical services to Wheeling citizens experiencing homelessness with Project Hope. He was present for the city’s clearing.

“They had two bulldozers, two big trucks, 10 city employees and police,” he said.

Despite the city giving notice of the intent to clear the camp last week, Mercer said the clearing caught the community unaware.

“One guy…was at work this morning,” he said. “His friend Terry had to go get him from work and bring him back so he could start packing his stuff up in bags.”

It was unclear where the displaced will spend the night.

“I think they were going to be able to maybe try to stay with somebody tonight and store some of their stuff in a friend’s garage,” Mercer said. “They didn’t have a whole lot.”

Wheeling is under a winter weather advisory, and Gov. Jim Justice has declared a state of emergency ahead of a storm Friday.

Citing pending litigation, a representative for the Wheeling city manager declined to comment.

The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia filed suit against the city in the Northern District of West Virginia Tuesday evening, Jan. 16. They are seeking an injunction against the camping ban ordinance, as well as declaratory relief, asking the court to find that the ban and forced removals are an unconstitutional practice.

Thursday morning ACLU WV filed an emergency request for a temporary restraining order against the City of Wheeling to stop the city from bulldozing tent encampments belonging to unhoused people. No such order was granted before the city took action.

In a press release, ACLU-WV Legal Director Aubrey Sparks called Wheeling “a bad-faith actor.”

“The city ignored requests to talk about exemptions to the habitation ban for months, created a new process out of thin air this week, and then destroyed people’s shelters anyway,” she said.

Early Intervention Key To Helping Homeless Veterans: Helping Heroes

“There are lots of reasons organizations have come up with to not shelter individuals and a lot of those conditions exist specifically in the veteran population,” he said. “So we try to reach through that.”

The struggle to help homeless and near homeless veterans often includes helping their families, too.

On Monday the Select Committee on Veterans Affairs heard from Helping Heroes, Inc., a Wheeling based center that assists veterans facing or currently experiencing homelessness, achieve housing stability.

Last year, the organization helped 56 veterans in the five counties of the Northern Panhandle. When factoring in their families, more than 300 individuals and families were affected.

Iraq veteran and cofounder Jeremy Harrison told committee members efforts to help homeless vets extends to their spouses and children.

“That’s one of the things people don’t really think about often when thinking about these veterans you’re trying to provide services for,” he said. “There are many children involved in these families; families living in vehicles or wherever they can, it often involves children.”

Helping Heroes helps veterans facing eviction with rent through the state’s Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) program.

Helping Heroes Chief Executive Officer R. J. Konkoleski said the organization also helps veterans access an emergency shelter where needed. During their stay at the shelter, veterans receive help to find a more permanent housing solution.

“Our shelter is a little different,” Konkoleski said. “As I mentioned, we meet veterans where they are. There are shelters in the area that you can’t stay in if you don’t have a driver’s license. If you’re living in a tent, or under a bridge, there’s a good chance you don’t remember where your driver’s license is, or you don’t have it.”

Konkoleski said a lot of local shelters refuse to accept veterans if they don’t pass a breathalyzer test.

The organization offers ten transitional housing beds where veterans can stay at no cost for up to 24 months. Case managers assist the veterans with benefits and employment, and ultimately move out into the community and into their own housing.

Konkoleski told lawmakers the program boasts a 72 percent success rate in helping vets find gainful employment and things like benefits which Konkoleski credits to the individual partnership between the vets and their case managers.

Many vets return from service and struggle with financial, marital, employment, mental health, and substance abuse issues.

“When we meet the veterans we serve, the first thing we see isn’t even a veteran,” he said. “It’s a human being because that’s who’s there first and that’s the first step in getting assistance from them.”

Konkoleski said the problem of homelessness is more complex than what it appears at face value. He called it a symptom of underlying societal problems.

“It’s a symptom of unemployment, it’s a symptom of mental health, it’s a symptom of addiction,” he said. “You can’t look at homelessness as the problem. You cannot eradicate homelessness, you have to meet people where they are, find out the causes and try to mitigate the causes.”

According to Helping Heroes, eleven percent of the homeless adult population are veterans. Konkoleski said prevention and early intervention are key.

“If you’ve been following the news in Wheeling, everyone is searching for a solution to the homelessness problem,” Konkoleski said. “I’m sure that it’s not unique to Wheeling, it’s probably all over the state of West Virginia. It’s probably all over the nation.”

Konkoleski said increasing engagement with at-risk veterans and providing the care they need as human beings will prevent the homeless crisis currently seen among the state’s veteran population.

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could meet these veterans before they are living in a tent, or before they’re staying under a bridge, and have interventions earlier to avoid them becoming homeless,” Konkoleski said. “That is how you would solve the homelessness problem.”

Project Rainbow Focuses On Housing Support For The LGBTQ Community

Housing can be a difficult issue for many, but especially for those in marginalized communities. A group in Morgantown is working to create Project Rainbow, a shelter and housing aid organization specifically for LGBTQ community members. Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with three of the project’s board members, Cassidy Thompson, Ash Orr and Erin Shelton to discuss the group’s objectives.

Schulz: Cassidy can you tell me in your own words about Project Rainbow?

Thompson: Project Rainbow is an initiative that we came up with, some of my coworkers and I, to empower and give safety and security to queer folks in West Virginia and Appalachia. The overall goal that we have right now is to open a safe haven shelter for LGBTQIA people to come and be safe while they navigate their housing journey. A lot of our folks that we work with in that community are met with intimidation and violence and threats, and we just want somewhere safe for them to be, somewhere where they’re accepted and loved. Hopefully it blossoms into a movement and something bigger. But this is just definitely an underserved community in West Virginia and Appalachia.

Schulz: Ash, tell me about the need for Project Rainbow and housing services in the LGBT community in West Virginia.

Orr: The reality is the queer community, especially trans individuals, face a lot of discrimination when it comes to housing and finding safe, affordable housing as well as navigating finding housing while being in shelters. Our typical shelters are not always safe environments for queer and trans individuals.

What we are seeing right now happening in West Virginia, and in other rural Appalachian states is just blatant attacks on our rights to exist. Unfortunately, with these new anti-LGBTQ laws being introduced and passed, we are starting to see members of the queer community and trans community trying to figure out if they’re gonna be able to keep their jobs, if they’re going to be able to keep their housing, if they are going to have to try to find ways to keep themselves safe. If they have to leave their jobs or housing, they’re going to be unsheltered and or homeless.

I think that with this project, we are able to act as a safety net for those individuals, while also making sure that they are being provided respect and resources. West Virginia is such a unique area because we have the highest amount of trans individuals per capita. These are individuals who are facing daily discrimination and hatred, who are just trying to find a safe place to rest their head at night. I’m really glad that we as an organization, who are not only queer individuals and allies, but also current and former unsheltered individuals, we have the experience, we have the networking capabilities, we have the resources to come together to fill in these gaps that are taking place here in our state.

Schulz: Erin, what are Project Rainbow’s objectives beyond emergency or temporary housing?

Shelton: As far as what we want to do beyond emergency shelter, I think peer and professional based advocacy and support is so important for anyone who’s unhoused but especially people in the LGBTQ community, because there is just so much blatant mistreatment and discrimination that goes on in any system but the housing system, that just goes totally unchecked. A lot of times when people are actively living in crisis, they just don’t have the resources to advocate for themselves. I think that we just see this already really, really difficult process become even more difficult when you add that layer of marginalization, and potential discrimination.

We want to be the people who are able to provide that advocacy, who are able to provide that safe space, and who are able to just let folks know that they are valid, that they matter. We see a lot of younger, queer people who are unhoused, who have been kicked out by their families. We want to show people that does exist, you have a whole community of us behind you who support you. You deserve to have not just all your needs met, but you deserve to be able to survive and thrive.

Schulz: Ash, what is Project Rainbow trying to achieve immediately, in the next year?

Orr: Yes, so we are wanting to open our doors here in the next coming weeks to start serving our community. What that fundraiser is that Cassidy launched for us, is helping us get across that finish line, helping us to just get that last bit of funding in place so we can safely open the doors and know that we have a few months of support already set aside.

Schulz: Erin?

Shelton: I think our most immediate objective, like Ash said, is to get people sheltered. I think any good housing organization takes that housing first framework where we want to get people sheltered, we want to get people housed and then we’re going to continue to follow up to make sure that they are getting the quality resources that they need when it comes to social services, health care and mental health care.

Schulz: Cassidy, anything to add?

Thompson: The immediate objectives are opening the shelter, as was stated, hiring staff and not just hiring anybody, but we hope to employ and empower people who are the demographic that we’re trying to serve. We have a couple of folks who are in the LGBTQ community who have been with us from the beginning, who both faced being unhoused and they are really interested in wanting to work on this project with us. We also want to immediately set up our mental health care services and hope to add housing program services in October when that grant funding becomes available.

——

Recently, Project Rainbow announced they will be opening their doors June 1.

Education Legislation And Addressing Homelessness On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, the federal government says this year’s count of homeless people shows 40 percent are living on the streets, unsheltered. That’s the highest percentage ever. Many cities are struggling to provide support. In Charleston, West Virginia outdoor encampments have been a focus at the state legislature as debate continues over how to respond.

On this West Virginia Morning, the federal government says this year’s count of homeless people shows 40 percent are living on the streets, unsheltered. That’s the highest percentage ever. Many cities are struggling to provide support. In Charleston, West Virginia outdoor encampments have been a focus at the state legislature as debate continues over how to respond.

In our latest episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay talks with the director of policy for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. Barbara DiPietro says our current approach to homelessness only exacerbates underlying issues. Here’s an excerpt from our next podcast.

Also, in this show, at the start of the West Virginia Legislative session, the state had to come to grips with several concerning reports showing declines in math and reading scores for public school students. Now, at the end of the legislative session, reporter Chris Schulz looks into what has been done so far to improve student outcomes. He spoke with the House Education Chairman Del. Joe Ellington, R-Mercer.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from West Virginia University, Concord University, and Shepherd University.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning