Shown here is a former homeless encampment in East Wheeling. City officials continue to debate a proposed ordinance banning camping on public property in the city. (File Photo)

WHEELING — As Wheeling city leaders continue to mull new ways to address issues surrounding the growing number of homeless individuals settling in the city, concerns have also been taking hold about the migration of unhoused people to the area.

Yet the city’s homeless liaison, who has been at ground level of the homeless situation since taking the position, said the theories that homeless people are being bused into Wheeling en masse are unfounded.

Proponents to a proposed camping ban in Wheeling have described the city as a “regional destination” for homeless people and drug addicts from near and far who are in search of a place to camp near the city’s “unprecedented level of enabling services.”

“I’ve heard three times in here tonight that people are being bused here now because all we do is take care of them,” Carlee Dittmar, chairwoman of the Ohio County Republican Party, said during a packed Wheeling City Council meeting earlier this month, when a total of 19 residents came to speak about the homeless issue. “You have to start somewhere … but if you don’t make it a crime, we’re going to have the same problem that they’re having in these big cities.”

Most people who came to speak at the emotionally charged meeting were strongly opposed to the proposed camping ban, which is still up for a second and final reading in November — albeit with likely revisions and amendments.

Opponents argue that banning camping in the city would essentially criminalize the existence of homeless individuals in the city — a step that they maintain is not only inhumane, immoral and unproductive, but also unconstitutional.

While the theory about Wheeling being a destination location for the homeless because of its array of support services from local organizations is difficult to prove, it is one that has loomed in the city in recent years.

Wheeling Homeless Liaison Melissa Adams said she was well aware of the theory when she began working in her newly created post in the city in the fall of 2021.

“When I first took this position with the city, I was told about people who apparently were being bused in and things like that,” Adams said. “So I started talking to people about it.”

Even before she started to become familiar with people living in the homeless community, Adams spoke to other service agency personnel and even those who work around the Robert C. Byrd Intermodal Transportation Center about the apparent influx of outside homeless individuals into the community.

Adams said there has been an occasional wandering person stopping in Wheeling from a bus ride originating at another location in the country now and again, but the alleged flooding of the city by busloads of homeless people is simply unsubstantiated.

However, that’s not to say that Wheeling is not – in many ways and for many reasons – a destination for those without a home who find themselves in the Ohio Valley. In fact, the area’s largest city – located at a major crossroads off of Interstate 70 and brimming with social service agencies – is often the “go-to” stop for people with nowhere else to go.

“When someone who got arrested is released from Northern Regional Jail, and they’re not from the Moundsville or Wheeling area, and they have no means to get anywhere else – a lot of them end up here,” Adams said. “That’s where they’re getting the services.”

It’s also where the bus stop is located.

Adams said in speaking with people from the local homeless community, some individuals from outside the area who have been picked up in other regional police jurisdictions for one reason or another often end up being taken to Wheeling or dropped off at the bridge in Bridgeport that leads to Wheeling Island. That’s likely because the bus stop is in Wheeling, it’s the biggest and most centrally located city in the region and there are support services available to help them.

“Even in other areas, there are resources,” Adams noted. “Many cities have food pantries, places where people can get tents and things, access to a medical card, but most smaller towns don’t have shelters.”

Wheeling has a number of shelters and housing options for individuals in need, but a number of people don’t meet the criteria for certain services, so many fall through the cracks. Hence, people end up in homeless encampments. Adams and heads of other local agencies have stressed the need for a low-barrier shelter to house these individuals who are falling through the cracks.

That is the goal of The Life Hub, which has purchased the First English Lutheran Church as its headquarters. On top of the low barrier shelter, the Life Hub wants to provide wraparound social services, housing, employment, education, mental and physical health care, and other vital services in a streamlined process at a centrally located site.

But there are a myriad of reasons people from the Ohio Valley or from elsewhere end up being part of the homeless community in Wheeling.

“Some people from outside the area are traveling on I-70, and their car breaks down, and they don’t have the money to fix it or get to where they’re going,” Adams cited. “But agencies are not busing people to agencies in other cities. It is a myth that Wheeling is being used by agencies outside the area as a destination.”

There are people from outside the area who are fleeing domestic violence situations who end up in Wheeling, Adams said. There are cases where people who get treated at local hospitals, then are released with nowhere to go. Some are simply passing through the area, but most are people from the Ohio Valley who are struggling with their own personal issues and who need help.

“The majority of our homeless population – far more than half – are local,” Adams said. “They’re from right here.”

In a handful of cases, people can be at risk of becoming homeless in the wake of a house fire. Adams said many times, young people in foster care end up homeless.

“They age out of the foster care system at 18 with a lot of hurt and trauma, and they’re not ready to live on their own,” she said.

Agencies in the area are working in the trenches to help each individual person the best they can, Adams indicated.

“We’re a city with compassion and care,” she said, noting that there are plenty of success stories that the community rarely hears about. “We’re not in this to make life more difficult on people who are already having a hard time. These are human beings who have the freedom to choose where they want to go.”

Adams said with many success stories, she works to follow through to make sure individuals – particularly those wishing to go to another destination – actually get there safely.

“Some people just want to get home or get to their family, and they need help getting there,” she said.

In many situations, those who escape from living on the streets are able to get housing, find employment and begin to turn their lives around and get back on their feet again. But the cycle of homelessness isn’t one that sees the population easily diminishing. For every success story, there is often a new tragic story of someone else who has hit rock bottom.

Brandon Fehr spoke before Wheeling City Council at the recent meeting when homeless issues created a stir. A musician and music teacher, Fehr said the threat of someone becoming homeless can literally hit close to home, as he discovered.

“My father was a photographer and journalist for a local paper, and later was head of marketing for a local college,” he said. “I was living in New York when I got the call that my dad wasn’t doing well. He nor I nor the family and the community wanted to believe it when his mind began to fail.

“The safety nets we all want to believe are there, I can tell you from experience, can be extremely difficult to access without help. My dad was either too well or not well enough – he fell through every crack.”

Fehr said he had to give up his own career to come home and help his father to prevent him from becoming homeless.

“Social workers and doctors said there was no place for him,” Fehr said. “His hospital charges quickly drained his life savings. It’s often easier to cast people out rather than treat them as neighbors and admit that it could happen to any of us … all of us. It happens fast, and it happens to good people. We need to focus efforts on improving the issues before it starts.”

Fehr said to properly address these complicated issues, society needs to reduce barriers to mental health care, simplify the paperwork, reduce individual costs, and allocate more funding to mental and physical health services and workers.

“We need to increase insurance payout for and reduce the stigma of accessing these services,” he said.