A mental health emergency and a drug epidemic.
Those are the two ongoing American crises that have collided across Appalachia over the last two decades to create a social catastrophe that’s broken families, caused thousands of overdoses and OD deaths, and resulted in the highest homeless percentages the region’s residents have ever witnessed.
And that’s included Wheeling, W.Va., since non-profit Youth Services System opened a “winter freeze shelter” in 2008 on the top floor of its headquarters in East Wheeling. In 2020, YSS moved the shelter to the shuttered Hillcrest facility on the former medical campus in Center Wheeling until the non-profit had to move in 2023 to the Catholic Charities ballroom along Main Street.
Since LIFE HUB WV was founded in 2023, a new shelter opened at the First English Lutheran Church in dowtown, and after Wheeling Council approved a camping ban on public property in November 2023, an exempted camp was permitted two years ago on city-owned property near Peninsula Street.
That encampment, however, was closed on December 1st, and Council appropriated $75,000 from its opioid settlement funds for a 30-bed, low-barrier female shelter at the Salvation Army on 16th Street. Since the opening, the need for additional beds has not been communicated to city officials, and LIFE HUB WV has posted on its Facebook page several times in December about available accommodations at both facilities.
The City’s reasons for closing the encampment included safety, public concern, unsanitary conditions, and alleged criminal activity, and the cost for the cleanup and decontamination, according to city officials, exceeded $41,000.
City officials, including council member Ben Seidler and Mayor Denny Magruder, have repeated several times that they do not plan to create a new exempted area, and that the camping ban on public property will remain in place, and enforcement will take place when necessary.
