Postings took place today along Wheeling Creek reportedly today and the area will be cleared of the homeless encampments this Friday, according to a memo composed by Wheeling Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger.
The chief included in the memo statistics compiled over a few months. Wheeling Police and members of the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department last cleared a large homeless encampment in April after a plethora of criminal complaints were found to be connected to residents of the encampment. While the encampment in question was investigated, it was found to be booby trapped.
The homeless population in the city of Wheeling has been counted to be as many as 100 individuals. Youth Services System in East Wheeling has the Winter Freeze Shelter between mid-December through mid-March, and there is not an empty bed. The West Virginia ACLU already has responded via a tweet about four hours ago:
“We told the city of Wheeling in April we would consider legal action if they continued to bulldoze encampments where struggling community members are living. Five months later, they’ve resumed those plans. Moments ago, we filed a federal class action lawsuit to stop them.”
