Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger plans to move forward on October 2 with the removal of four homeless camps along Big Wheeling Creek following a ruling released Wednesday by U.S. District Judge John Bailey.
According to the ruling, the city of Wheeling must offer a two-week notice to the homeless residents before the removals can take place. The city also must post notices of the intended actions two weeks before any action is taken, and officials must give two weeks’ written notice to the Greater Wheeling Homeless Coalition and Project Hope as well as any other organization wishing to be notified.
Bailey also ruled that on the day when an encampment is scheduled to be dismantled, crew members must offer two hours for the inhabitants present to remove their personal property. The federal judge made the ruling after representatives from ACLU-West Virginia filed an injunction in federal court two weeks ago.
Schwertfeger announced on September 2 that encampments would be removed after 118 complaint calls were received concerning criminal activity connected to residents living at the locations. The chief explained in a letter that the calls included nine overdoses, six fugitive arrests, two sexual assaults, and a death investigation involving a female that was discovered deceased for at least four days.
Fifteen Days
Initially, the camps were to be removed on September 4, but that was delayed once the injunction was filed in federal court.
“I feel this is a win for the city and a win for trying to improve public safety because now we have the process defined,” Schwertfeger explained. “The federal government has given us that course, and we’re in the process of following right now. The date these camps will be removed is October 2.
“The camps that will be removed are on property that is owned by the state Division of Highways, and they have told us that they do not want the homeless encampments on the state’s property,” he continued. “At this time, I am not sure how many tents will need to be removed because that number changes day-to-day.”
April Removals
This will not be the first time Chief Schwertfeger has ordered the removal of homeless encampments in mid-April in response to a plethora of complaints concerning breaking and entering, sexual assaults, and drug overdoses.
On April 21, Chief Schwertfeger revealed that one homeless camp was booby trapped. The encampments were removed by employees of the city’s Operation Department with police officer present.
In addition to the criminal complaints, first responders with the Wheeling Fire Department have responded to several campsite fires during the spring and summer months. One blaze, in fact, occurred in close proximity to the Boury Lofts building on the corner of 16th and Main streets.
“When I made the recommendation that the camps be removed in the spring, it was based on a lot of the same crime data that we have collected on the camps that will be dismantled in the beginning of October,” the chief explained. “Once these camps are cleared, the Division of Highways will be posting signs informing people that setting up a camp on state property is prohibited. If it happens any, we will do what we need to do to ensure the public’s safety.
“In the future, should a camp appear on public property and the same kind of crime statistics are collected, I won’t hesitate to make the same recommendation,” Schwertfeger said. “But right now, we have 20 camps that are fine because we are not having these kinds of problems. I am not interested in displacing a law-abiding citizen, but with these, criminal activity has been taking place for months.”
