Rabbi Lief to Chair Wheeling Homeless Task Force
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WHEELING - Officials in the city of Wheeling do not expect to solve the complex problem of homelessness, but a new task force of local religious leaders and chaired by Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom are expected to offer a fresh approach to collaboratively tackling the challenging issue.
On Tuesday, Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder announced that he selected Lief to chair the newly established Wheeling Homeless Task Force. Early last month, the mayor announced the creation of the new task force and outlined some of the effort’s objectives.
"We’re going to have an executive committee composed of clerics," Magruder said. "I do have seven or eight folks who agreed to do this. It gives us a broad base of Wheeling clerics - they are people of faith and generally very compassionate people."
Magruder said he selected Lief to chair the executive committee for a number of reasons.
"In the case of the rabbi - I see the rabbi as quite a leader," the mayor said. "He’s served as the chairman of the Human Rights Commission in Wheeling and has always done an admirable job. He’s a phenomenal speaker, he knows how to run a meeting, and he’s a compassionate and wise man. I believe he was a very, very good choice."
The mayor noted that when he first approached Lief to chair the committee - and when he approached others to serve on the executive committee - they truly put thought into the proposal.
"I’m very happy that he accepted the chair position of this task force," Magruder said.
"It’s a daunting task and a problem that’s certainly beyond one individual or any group of individuals from solving completely," Lief said on Tuesday. "As such, we may be tempted to avoid dealing with it. However, my faith certainly directs me that I’m not allowed to avoid difficult things. If the right thing to do is to be of help, I’ll try to be of help."
Lief said he has several goals in mind for the new Wheeling Homeless Task Force.
"I’m eager to hear what other members of the task force would have to say," he noted. "But to my thinking, one of the most important issues would be for people across the spectrum of our community to hear everyone’s views - even those that differ from their own."
Lief said he would love to hear from people in the homeless community, from the many people who are working hard to help them, and from the residents and businesspeople who are facing issues related to the homeless community. He said he hopes the task force can explore whether or not anything can be done to nullify those concerns.
He added that he would be interested in seeing what business owners and residents believe are some of the good works happening currently in the effort to address homeless issues in town and what better ideas they may have to handle the needs of homeless neighbors even more efficiently.
Lief added that keeping an open mind about different views would be progress in itself.
"It’s an excellent idea by the mayor to call the community together," he said. "We’re supposed to deal with these issues as a community - not as any individuals, certainly not the city on its own, not agencies on their own, but collaboratively."
The rabbi noted that he hopes small improvements can be made to services already being provided in order to make them even better. Larger improvements - like mental health care and drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities - also need to be addressed in the long-term.
"We as a community could be doing better as a group instead of as individuals shouting into the wind," he said. "Perhaps together we might carry more weight with powers on the state and federal level."
Magruder noted that he plans to call the executive committee of the new task force together for a meeting soon.
"Sometime over the next week or 10 days when we can get folks together, there will be an executive committee meeting," the mayor said. "We’ll talk a little bit more about our strategies and our goals and objectives at that level. Then there will be a general committee meeting."
Magruder said a general committee of the task force will be a larger group of individuals beyond the clerical leaders in the executive committee. The larger group will meet fewer times a year and can be broken into subcommittees.
There will be representatives from city council, public safety forces, mental health and addiction professionals, general health professionals and social service agency representatives on the larger general committee of the task force.
"I’m very hopeful that we can make some positive differences in what’s going on in Wheeling with homelessness and the adverse impact that it’s having on our downtown business community and some residential areas," Magruder said. "I know we won’t solve homelessness - that’s not something that we’re going to do. We’ll know that going in. This committee is getting together so we can have a balanced view. We can try to figure out the best course to go to provide service and healing ability to the homeless as well as - we hear those cries of the business community and some of the residents that are suffering some of those adverse effects. So that’s our goal."
Other members of the executive committee and general committee are expected to be named at a later date, the mayor noted.
"I think it gives us our best opportunity to look at these problems objectively and compassionately, but also from a law enforcement perspective to make our community a better place," Magruder said. "Through this leadership, I hope we can start to address some of these issues that plague our community right now."
The Wheeling Homeless Task Force will be a volunteer advisory committee made up of community leaders, and the meetings are not expected to be open to the public.
Lief said he was hopeful that the new approach can have a positive impact on the community and that he was happy to play a role in this effort.
"If I can help bring people together to do more good than any of us can accomplish on our own, that would be positive," Lief said.