Much has been written about the homeless problem in Wheeling, and there are so many “claims of compassion” when it comes to dealing with the only growing part of our community.
Before I talk about housing the homeless, it’s important to remember that you really have to work at being homeless and hungry in Wheeling. If you are homeless and have children, there are multiple programs for that life scenario. Veteran? There are programs for that, too. Need food? Social programs? How about healthcare?
There are multiple organizations for all of it.
More precisely, there are many programs available, and they are run by talented people who bring a wealth of knowledge and tremendous compassion. And a tremendous number of federal and state donated dollars are in place to “cure” this problem.
There are federal programs, state programs, and church-based programs, all of which are run by knowledgeable and skilled people. It’s an incredible brain trust whose efforts are blunted by bureaucratic programs with a narrow scope. Legislation put in place spending the public treasury and making tiny improvements because “Congressman Big Spender” is looking for instant results.
Straight up, if you’re hungry and homeless in Wheeling, something is really, really, really wrong.
See, I’m a landlord. Our units occupy a niche between federal housing that you might be able to get into, and market-rate housing which you need a skilled job to afford. So, if you have been convicted of a felony, or can’t get gas, electricity or water in your name, there are landlords, like us, who can house you.
The problem as of late, though, is the quality of the homeless tenant is in sharp decline. I’m using the term “quality” because it’s the only descriptor that seemed to fit. What should be viewed as a gift – the taxpayers paying for your security deposit and a couple of months of rent – is now viewed as an entitlement.
They are “supposed to get” this or that, because why? It’s certainly not because of the taxes they didn’t pay.
And with that entitlement, they are not going to listen to the agency paying their rent, or the landlord. They have rights, don’t you know.
The plan is to get them housed and keep them housed, and this landlord wants that to come true. The agency working with the homeless wants that, too. It’ not about housing them for a couple of months and then finding them on the street again. The goal is to put them on a long-term trajectory that allows the homeless to transition to permanent housing and a being productive members of society.
But no one seems to know what the homeless want, and they don’t want to listen to those who are attempting to help them in any way, shape or form. The apartments which are offered to them, I’ve heard, are not nearly deluxe enough, or in what they consider the right neighborhood.
When they don’t get their way, they do what they do on the street.
That includes destroying what has been provided for them, with no understanding or respect for the fact that it costs them and their peers money.
I have friends whose families rented apartments when they grew up. They treated the rental apartments well, because it was their home. They were not about to live in squalor. Their rented apartments were clean, squared away and proper. They didn’t ignore the trash that the raccoon pulled out of the trash can. They picked it up. Someone had to do that, and the renters did it.
The progression today fairly clearly demonstrates that what worked yesterday won’t work today or tomorrow. Today, an agency gets the homeless housed. They pay the security deposit and some months of rent. Some even help the homeless find jobs, but the homeless can’t seem to show up for work. When dismissed, finding another job is just too difficult.
But the homeless work overtime to get themselves evicted and the disconnect here is this – it seems to be the only thing they successfully work toward.
Evicted because they invite 10 of their closest friends from the street to live with them, violating their lease and driving the other tenants in the building away.
Evicted because their apartment is so filled with filth that they can’t pass either the government’s or the landlord’s most basic inspection.
Evicted because they want to bring their homeless “street life” to wherever they are, and that includes starting a fire on the paved driveway.
Evicted because they are entitled to pick an argument with their neighbor.
Evicted because their couch-surfing nephew from Cleveland is dealing drugs from their living room.
All this is indicative of a much deeper problem that is going to require old solutions. I believe that mental illness is the underlying problem. Today, society is prevented from addressing the problem in the way we did in the past.
So, we have these people panhandling on our streets, destroying the valley’s rental apartment inventory, and utilizing a huge percentage or our police and emergency medical resources.
So, how do we provide for the mentally ill in our community? Very poorly.
This needs to be addressed, or the homelessness and the drugs will continue. The people running the agencies know how to fix this, but the bureaucrats and the legislators don’t choose to listen. It requires fundamental change that runs counter to the current narrative.
The one that has been forced upon us demanding that we be gentler and kinder. The third rail that social services dances around because pointing to the real root cause will draw battle lines. It does not matter that they are incapable of making decisions, they have rights.
This circle is driving the local landlords to a point of indifference. Renting to the homeless at one point was helping. Today, it’s a sure way to lose money and spend ridiculous amounts of time fixing an apartment that we had just repaired 60 days before.
It’s going to make housing the homeless that much more difficult, if not impossible.
But hey, maybe they could decide to set up a camp across the street from you.
