This homeless encampment is one of several in the Tunnel Green area, where Wheeling crews will be cleaning up after repeated reports of crime.

WHEELING — In response to a series of crimes believed to be originating from local homeless encampments, Wheeling Police and city crews have begun cleaning up some of the encampments around Tunnel Green.

City Manager Robert Herron said Friday that the city had been dismantling the encampments since Tuesday in response to complaints involving vandalism.

“For the past few weeks, we’ve been receiving complaints regarding vandalism … coming out of a couple of camps,” Herron said, adding that some of the alleged crimes had targeted contractors working on Interstate 70. “Some (complaints) involved vehicles and equipment from highway contractors, and vandalism to buildings on Warren Street.”

Herron said the city had worked with the local Project HOPE office to communicate to the inhabitants of the encampments that they would be vacated. Herron said they were warned at least a week in advance, both by Project HOPE and by police.

“We’re sensitive to the times that we’re in, but it just got to the point where we had to act on the camps based on the activity…” Herron said. “Through Project HOPE we informed the people in the camps that we would be cleaning the camps up, they had to get their belongings together and be prepared to leave.”

Police Chief Shawn Schwertfeger said the encampments have been the location of numerous police calls, from assaults and disorderly conduct calls, to drug use and stolen property calls. One building on Warren Street, he said, had been repeatedly burglarized.

“These camps are clearly on the radar,” Schwertfeger said. “We’re always going for assaults and disorderlies. We had reports of a significant break-in to vehicles and equipment, the detective responded right away, and found the property right in one of the camps, including a set of keys to the vehicle.”

Schwertfeger said he had made the recommendation to Herron for the city to take action in cleaning up the encampments some time ago, due to the repeated need for police presence.

“Would anyone allow an encampment of the property that allowed repeated criminal activity? Why would the city be any different?” Schwertfeger asked. “I’m very mindful that some citizens have fallen on hard times, if they want to live peacefully without committing crimes. … We actually went down to one of the camps the other day. They were very receptive. They understood, told the (officers) that they had fallen on hard times, and they were moving out. Not all camps have been cleaned up, some are still being sort of allowed to exist.”

Lisa Badia, Executive Director of the Greater Wheeling Coalition for the Homeless, said they have been monitoring the situation as a possible vector for the spread of disease, as dispersing the population of encampments has the potential to spread illnesses, if the tenants of the encampment were sick. However, Badia said she was not against the idea of police dispersing the camps in the interest of public safety, and that the coalition strives to help the homeless population to find more permanent help than an encampment.

“We were all working in the spirit of trying to keep people healthy where they are. Naturally, when you clear an encampment, you disperse those people throughout the community, you can break connections with service providers, and you can certainly increase the potential for disease to spread, if people in that community were ill,” Badia said. “While we wish that this could have happened with better planning, I certainly can’t criticize law enforcement for doing anything that they need to when there’s an issue with public safety.

“For us, we don’t necessarily believe encampments are the best solution to homelessness. We really believe that we should have a plan to engage people, … into coming in for services, accepting housing opportunities, developing resources financially to sustain their housing, and never being homeless again,” she added. “We look for permanent solutions, and we don’t feel a campsite is a permanent solution.”