photo by: Eric Ayres

No trespassing signs at the gate of city property on Industrial Drive near the Peninsula Cemetery were taken seriously on Tuesday morning, when police warned people that they were not to enter the property. Operations crews removed all remnants of Wheeling's homeless encampment after police made sure that everyone had vacated the premises. The city officially shut down the camp on Monday.

WHEELING – Members of Wheeling City Council heard backlash Tuesday night about the closure of the city’s homeless encampment, which earlier in the day was vacated and cleared of everything left behind.

After awakening to a heavy blanket of snow from an overnight winter storm, volunteers and representatives of local social service agencies on Tuesday morning continued to assist the last remaining individuals at the camp on city Operations Department property Industrial Drive near the Peninsula Cemetery that for nearly two years had served as a place where the homeless were permitted to stay in tents.

The city chose to close the site at 5 p.m. on Monday after giving six weeks notice, describing the location that had been exempted from the city’s new camping ban as a “failure.”

While no one who remained at the camp after the 5 p.m. Monday deadline was arrested, a heavy police presence descended on the site Tuesday morning, when city operations and refuse hauling crews brought dump trucks, backhoes and other heavy equipment to clean up and clear the property. By Tuesday evening, all tents and other personal property left behind was cleared from the site, loaded into roll-off dumpsters and taken away.

City leaders had described the camp as a “hell hole” that was not suitable for anyone to live in.

No residents of the camp were arrested on Tuesday, but one volunteer at the site who reportedly was there with representatives of Ohio Valley Mutual Aid assisting camp residents with vacating the site was arrested and booked into the Northern Regional Jail. According to Wheeling Police, Melissa Marie Burch, 36, was booked on misdemeanor charges of trespassing and obstructing an officer.

Representatives of Ohio Valley Mutual Aid have indicated that she has since bailed out of jail, and a fund has been established to assist with her legal expenses.

East Wheeling resident Vincent DeGeorge of OV Mutual Aid spoke before members of Wheeling City Council during their meeting Tuesday night. DeGeorge expressed frustration with the way the camp closure was handled, but assured his willingness to continue to work with city leaders to find a solution to the city’s ongoing challenges with its homeless population.

photo by: Eric Ayres

East Wheeling resident Vincent DeGeorge addresses members of Wheeling City Council on Tuesday night about the city’s homeless issues. DeGeorge said a friend of his was arrested Tuesday while Ohio Valley Mutual Aid workers were trying to help homeless individuals vacate the camp that the city was closing.

“I came here tonight to ask for a reset. I’m willing to work with you, and I ask if you’re willing to work with us,” DeGeorge said. “You guys have won. You’ve managed to close and clear Wheeling’s homeless camp just before winter on the eve of a snow storm not once but twice over the past two years. You’ve banned homelessness.”

DeGeorge noted that the city had been sued by the American Civil Liberties Union in the past for its handling of homeless issues, yet the city has stayed the course.

“You fired Wheeling’s homeless liaison, you kicked me off the Wheeling Human Rights Commission, you’ve gotten hundreds of millions of dollars in opioid settlement funds, four opioid settlements, ATVs, raises this year — Wheeling has the biggest budget in our history,” DeGeorge said before council. “You got to grandstand on this platform about how much you hate homelessness, about how much the charities are part of the problem — getting paid six figures. You’ve gotten to tell yourselves there’s enough shelter beds for the homeless population, even though tonight as the Salvation Army opens, there still aren’t enough beds. You’ve won. To top it off, you arrested one of my friends this morning. It may as well have been me.”

DeGeorge said he was willing to put all that behind to work in concert with the city, noting that the police eventually allowed OV Mutual aid workers and other volunteers to help get remaining individuals out of the camp earlier in the day.

Johnny Haught of Ohio Valley MMA, who introduced himself to city council Tuesday night as an activist, also appeared before council Tuesday night.

“I do my best to speak up for people that don’t have the voice, and right now we’re here for that,” Haught said. “We’re willing to continue doing the work, but we have been stretched thin.”

Haught said OV Mutual Aid worked hard to help the community after this year’s devastating and deadly floods, and in the wake of that, resources and fundraising capabilities have diminished.

“Now you’re giving us a whole new wave of problems to deal with,” Haught said, stating that the assertion by city leaders that there are enough beds in local homeless shelters to accommodate everyone is false. “You looked at the numbers, and if you’re either ignorant of the numbers or you’re just full of it. Because you know that there’s about 40 people who do not have the space.”

Haught said they were given a deadline they could not meet, and they just needed a little more time.

“Now we’re watching people walk through the streets of Wheeling, which you didn’t want to begin with,” he said. “We gave them an encampment to keep them there. … That was the best way to handle it right now, until we can get beds — until we can get people the help that they need.”

The city used opioid settlement money from the state to purchase a UTV to patrol the homeless camp, Haught said — a purchase that was protested by many homeless advocates who argued that the money should be used for drug addiction recovery services. Haught asked council if the city planned to return the UTV or give the money back now that the camp has been closed and bulldozed.

“All I’m asking is for you guys to come up with an idea of a solution outside of just ‘we don’t want it here,'” Haught said. “Because they’re not going to disappear.

“We can’t just abandon our less fortunate. We can’t just abandon the most vulnerable of us.”

photo by: Eric Ayres

Stacie Brennan of Wheeling walks away after addressing Wheeling City Council on Tuesday night. Brennan told city leaders that she gave up her bed at The Life Hub for someone less fortunate and is now back to living on the street.

Stacie Brennan also spoke before city leaders on Tuesday night.

“I have no address, because I gave my bed at the Hub up for someone who is less fortunate,” Brennan said. “I’m out on the streets now so someone else can have a bed, but you people don’t care.

“I’m sitting here listening to two ladies discussing dinner tonight, and I’m out on the streets. I wish that I had a home to go to to make a nice dinner.”

Brennan said the city should invest money in helping the people who are in need.

“These people need help,” she said. “Do you people have no morals or compassion? This is just corruption in my eyes.”

Speakers who addressed city council during Tuesday night’s meeting were each allotted three minutes to speak on the record at the end of the meeting. As is routine procedure under the agenda item of “those wishing to be heard,” city leaders listened but did not respond to what was said during the session.