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Two years ago, as the city of Wheeling pondered creating a position to solve the city's homeless crisis, we noted that city leaders, before they hired anyone for the job, needed to have clear, well-defined expectations so that they and the public could better gauge that person's success.
Council chose not to do that. They hired a coordinator -- Melissa Adams -- and then gave her little to no direction other than to coordinate with social service agencies in the region and occasionally report back to council. Adams has done what council asked of her over the past 18 months, and by all accounts she's done it well. But it's some of the work she and other city officials are doing outside of their official public roles that has at least two council members concerned.
On Tuesday, Mayor Glenn Elliott and Councilman Jerry Sklavounakis both questioned why Adams and several other city officials are the ones leading the charge to build a new Life Hub downtown at the corner of 16th and Market streets, the former First English Lutheran Church. The Life Hub, a non-profit entity led by Adams and with City Manager Robert Herron and city Communications Director Michele Rejonis on its board, is seeking to build a low-barrier homeless shelter downtown -- right across from the Ohio County Public Library and West Virginia Northern Community College.
Adams is a city employee, as are Herron and Rejonis. The Life Hub is not a city entity -- in fact, council has not agreed to be involved in the project in any manner. So why are city officials spending their time -- time paid for by taxpayers -- setting up a homeless shelter?
Herron attempted to explain: "The only way this can be successful going forward … is if the homeless liaison is involved in setting up and getting things squared away going forward," he said of the Life Hub. "If there is going to be a board to raise money and receive donations, and the homeless liaison is coordinating the effort, then there has to be some city interaction."
That's a poor explanation. Many agencies in town who've been serving the homeless for years haven't required the city manager to sit on their board, or the homeless liaison to raise funds. Those agencies -- think of Street MOMs, or Project HOPE -- are serving the homeless with volunteers, not paid city officials. Exactly what is going on here?
Since there never were clear directives, a job that was intended to help deal with the city's homeless crisis has now turned into a position actively working to create a homeless shelter downtown. City money already is involved in the project through the time of Adams, Herron and others. How long will it be before direct city funding is sought to help with the shelter, as the price tag is now at $18 million?
Another question: why is the city getting into the homeless shelter business at all? Why would the city duplicate services already being offered by other social service agencies? How does that make sense?
There are many conflicts here, and even more questions. Elliott and Sklavounakis were right to raise the alarm. Perhaps it's time for the city to step back and reassess the homeless liaison role. Is that person a liaison, or an advocate? Without clear guidelines, it's easy to see how it could be either.