Homelessness Story Archives - Page 2 of 6 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

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

Compassion Fatigue

Homelessness is not just an issue for big cities like San Francisco or New York City. Across America, communities large and small are struggling to provide shelter to people without housing. In Charleston, West Virginia, government and community approaches to help the unhoused have created more debate on an issue that is already divisive.

Homelessness has been on the rise since 2016, and the pandemic only exacerbated an acute shortage of resources to help people living on the streets. Now, many communities are struggling to provide support as some homeless people turn away from emergency shelters and remain in outdoor encampments.

In Charleston, West Virginia, the city’s opioid response program also now focuses on homelessness. “Tent cities” have been a focus at the state legislature as debate continues over how best to help people living on the street.

At the same time, some people say they’re more afraid of people living on the street than in the past. Providing sustained care for homeless people continues to elude and divide even well-meaning and determined communities.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.

*Us & Them* host Trey Kay met Randy Lantz while Lantz sheltered on the steps of First Presbyterian Church in Charleston on a cold night in January 2023. Lantz said he’s been homeless since 2016. He said he’s from Atlanta, Georgia and has been in prison three times. Lantz said he found his way “back into the world” after his first two prison terms. But this time, he said, he cannot.

*Credit: Julie Blackwood*

Rev. William Myers became First Presbyterian Church’s new head minister in August 2021. It wasn’t long before he became aware of the church’s transient guests who slept on the building’s front steps. Rev. Myers allowed them to camp there overnight. But he wanted to set limits, knowing children in the church’s preschool program used that entrance every morning and afternoon.

He established some ground rules for those sheltering on the steps. But this did not resolve the concerns of community members in and outside First Presby. In his first days in Charleston, Rev. Myers was quickly immersed in the debate over how best to help people living on the street.

*Credit Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

(Click here to view Rev. Myer’s sermon about caring for homeless people.)

Ashley Switzer was born and raised in Charleston. She is a school teacher. Ashley and her husband have raised five children in West Virginia’s capitol city. Her grandson attends a preschool that’s located near First Presbyterian Church and St. John’s Episcopal Church, which houses Manna Meal, a soup kitchen that’s been serving meals to homeless people for more than four decades.

“There was a group of parents from this school right here who actually called for a meeting with the mayor of our town because of instances with homeless or criminal vagrants on school property, near school property, banging on parents’ car doors, children in the back screaming,” she said, standing outside the preschool playground where her grandson plays. “There have been children playing on this actual playground where homeless people will threaten them. My grandson has witnessed someone walking down this very sidewalk with no pants.”

*Credit: Ashley Switzer*

Barbara DiPietro is the senior director of policy for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. She oversees the group’s federal advocacy and policy analysis. “It’s not compassion in our public policies when we consistently choose not to fund housing, not to raise wages, to allow people to not get health care,” DiPietro said. “Homelessness isn’t an accident. These are conscious public policy choices.”

*Credit: National Institute for Medical Respite Care*

Taryn Wherry is director of the City of Charleston’s CARE program, or Coordinated Addiction Response Effort. The CARE program began under Charleston’s current mayor, Amy Goodwin.

“We take a very hands-on, boots on the ground approach every day,” Wherry said. “We’re in the streets, we’re on the [river] banks or in abandoned properties. We’re talking to people and meeting them where they’re at.”

Wherry said CARE staff know firsthand what it is like to be out on the streets, struggling with drug or alcohol addiction.

“We have individuals who have lived and learned experience in all fields, people who are in long-term recovery who have been in active addiction,” she said.

*Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

(Click here to hear Mayor Goodwin on meeting the needs of Charleston’s homeless population.)

(Click here to view former Charleston Mayor Danny Jones announcing his order to dismantle a homeless encampment known as “Tent City.”)

Sommer Short is a peer support worker with Covenant House, which is one of the nonprofit service organizations that works with Charleston’s CARE team. When Sommer was 21, she was injured in a car accident and was prescribed opioids. Over the next five years, she transitioned to heroin use. She said she eventually left home and became homeless.

Short is sober now and works to help unhoused people who are living the way she used to live. She said many of the homeless people she meets are living with substance use disorder. She said they feel like “her people.”

“Though I may be in a position where I’m three years sober today, I am comfortable going out there and trying to help someone the same way that someone helped me,” she said.

*Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

One way Short tries to help is by offering food and “hygiene bags” to homeless people camping in and around Charleston. She keeps the supplies in the trunk of her car.

“In the bag, we have a Ziploc bag, which contains the toilet paper and their socks and some ointment. Then, we have some baby wipes. And inside, we also have a bottle of water, a hairbrush, a comb, a little travel pack for their toothpaste and a brush, a razor, shaving cream,” she said. Short also has food gift cards and Narcan nasal spray, which can be used to reverse a drug overdose.

*Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

As Short walked toward a homeless encampment, she passed under a highway overpass. Someone had written “HOPE” in yellow spray paint on the concrete wall.

“Hold On Pain Ends,” Short said, describing what the word meant to her. “You always gotta have hope. Pain ends eventually. But you got to work for it as well.”

*Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Federal Public Housing Grant Supports Multiple W.Va. Cities

The funding is planned to help upgrade and modernize 30 public housing projects statewide, with each grant for each housing authority adding up to $17.6 million in total funding.

Federal funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development is going to support public housing in the state.

The funding is planned to help upgrade and modernize 30 public housing projects statewide, with each grant for each housing authority adding up to $17.6 million in total funding. It comes from the agency’s Public Housing Capital Fund Formula Grant Program.

“Ensuring West Virginians have a roof over their head and a warm place to sleep at night continues to be one of my top priorities. Thousands of West Virginians and millions of Americans are currently experiencing homelessness, and we must work together to combat this devastating issue,” Sen. Joe Manchin said in a joint statement with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito announcing the funding.

Approximately 1,238 people in the state experienced homelessness in 2022, according to an HUD report.

Some of the largest awarded grants include more than $3 million dollars to the Charleston/Kanawha Housing Authority, more than $2 million to the Housing Authority of Huntington and $1.5 million to the Housing Authority of the City of Wheeling.

The full list includes:

$3,203,383 to the Charleston/Kanawha Housing Authority
$2,080,718 to the Housing Authority of the City of Huntington
$1,548,515 to the Housing Authority of the City of Wheeling
$917,453 to the Clarksburg/Harrison Housing Authority
$834,218 to the Housing Authority of the City of Martinsburg
$730,277 to the Housing Authority of the City of Williamson
$677,898 to the Housing Authority of the City of Beckley
$655,307 to the Housing Authority of the City of Moundsville
$587,038 to the Housing Authority of the City of Grafton
$484,533 to the Housing Authority of the City of Bluefield
$473,645 to the Housing Authority of the City of Parkersburg
$472,182 to the Housing Authority of the County of Jackson
$465,911 to the Housing Authority of Benwood and McMechen
$424,165 to the Fairmont/Morgantown Housing Authority
$419,561 to the Housing Authority of the City of Mount Hope
$410,445 to the Housing Authority of the City of Pt. Pleasant
$327,518 to the Housing Authority of the City of Spencer
$320,434 to the Housing Authority of the City of South Charleston
$297,897 to the Housing Authority of the City of Dunbar
$275,860 to the Housing Authority of the City of Weirton
$254,458 to the Housing Authority of the City of Piedmont
$244,592 to the Housing Authority of the City of Keyser
$238,128 to the Housing Authority of the City of St. Albans
$233,710 to the Housing Authority of the City of Buckhannon
$232,844 to the Housing Authority of Boone County
$206,771 to the Housing Authority of the City of Elkins
$190,858 to the Housing Authority of the City of Romney
$154,426 to the Housing Authority of Raleigh County
$138,668 to the Housing Authority of Mingo County
$132,187 to the Housing Authority of the City of Weston

The HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher Program Funding Assignment for Homeownership Fees Program, awarded to the Charleston/Kanawha Housing Authority, would also see $200 per household awarded to cover homeownership closing fees for families switching from renting.

Veteran Law Enforcement Officers Now Included In Alzheimer’s Awareness Training Bill

On Alzheimer’s Awareness Day at the West Virginia Legislature, the organization’s program director Terresa Morris said that more than half of those with the brain disorder affecting memory and behavior will – at one time or another – wander.

About 40,000 West Virginians live with some degree of Alzheimer’s dementia, according to the West Virginia chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. There has been concern that recent legislation focused on law enforcement interacting with those suffering with Alzheimer’s did not go far enough.

Senate Bill 570 was signed into law in 2022. The measure required all new law enforcement and correction officers to undergo specialized training in how to identify and communicate with those living with dementia. Morris said that training proved as an eye opener for new recruits.

“When we talk about stories of people in the past that have had situations like this, I think it’s something that our new officers don’t always think about,” Morris said. “They just know that’s not what they’re taught, per se, so currently, we’re doing that through training at the State Academy for all the new officers.”

That law made Alzheimer’s awareness training voluntary for law enforcement and correction officers already on the force. However, few veterans stepped up to take the training.

Currently proposed Senate Bill 208 mandates that all law enforcement officers, new and old, take Alzheimer’s awareness training.

Morris said with stories of first responder confusion over intoxication vs. dementia still coming to light, across the board training becomes a community help as well.

“This is something fairly new,” Morris said. “We’re just at the point where we have increased awareness of dementia and Alzheimer’s and someone that maybe has been in the force five, 10, 20 years – they need this training, they need to know what they could potentially be dealt with or what they could be working with.”

The training also includes understanding the risks associated with Alzheimer’s, including elder abuse and exploitation.

With Alzheimer’s activists in attendance, the Senate suspended rules Thursday and passed Senate Bill 526, which would incorporate early detection, diagnosis and education efforts regarding dementia on its public health platforms. That bill now goes to the House of Delegates for consideration.

Statewide Homeless Survey Bill Advances

SB 239 would have behavioral health providers, treatment specialists, statewide government leaders and community stakeholders assess a breakdown of homeless demographics.

A bill continues to advance that mandates a statewide homeless survey, intended to see if West Virginia’s health and human services facilities are being overtapped.

Senate Bill 239 would have behavioral health providers, treatment specialists, statewide government leaders and community stakeholders assess a breakdown of homeless demographics.

On Tuesday, the House Committee on the Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse passed the bill and sent it on to the House Health Committee.

The study would determine where homelessness is most concentrated around the state, if policies cause homeless relocation to certain areas and who is coming in from other states using West Virginia services.

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, believes the survey will assess public health root causes.

“A lot of it has to do with mental illness and substance use disorder, and I would be willing to bet that it’s not the services that are provided,” Puskin said.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Mike Azinger, R-Wood, has said that better understanding the state’s unhoused population is important to ensure the best use of the state’s resources.

“The study is basically just to know where the homeless folks are in West Virginia, why they are migrating from one part of the state to the other and how many of these homeless people are from out of state,” Azinger said. “We’re getting tons of out-of-state people that come to West Virginia, to the drug rehab places, because we have a lot of beds in one county: Cabell, but also, because we have benefits. We give away all kinds of freebies, and the word gets out on the street, cross-country, ‘Hey go to West Virginia.’ And that’s what’s happening. We want to truncate that, staunch the bleeding, put a stop to it, and make it reasonable. We’re not kicking anybody out of beds, we don’t want to do that, we want people that want help to get help.”

The homeless survey is due to be completed by July 1, 2024.