You’ve likely seen the photographs and aerial videos of the unacceptable mess that was made at the former exempted homeless camp on the city’s Peninsula.

Following the release of those images to our reporter along with a full accounting of the cost to the taxpayers associated with the site’s cleanup, it has become much more clear that city leaders had no choice in their decision to close the camp.

By the time the camp was closed on Dec. 1 and cleanup began the next morning, it was, in the words of City Manager Robert Herron, “an absolute mess.”

And if there’s one thing to learn following this failed two-year experiment, it’s this: an outdoor camp on public property is simply not a workable or responsible option moving forward.

The cost alone should give this community pause. According to Herron, the city’s taxpayers spent $41,350 just to clean up the site in the two days following its closing. That is real money — enough to equal a yearly salary for many city employees who keep Wheeling running each day. It is money that could have supported public safety, infrastructure, youth programs, or direct services for those in need. Instead, it was diverted to remove a mountain of trash and two years of neglect left behind because an exempted camping area proved unmanageable.

And what exactly did taxpayers fund? Consider:

– Thirty-three roll-off dumpster loads of trash;

– Hundreds of abandoned bicycle wheels;

– Twenty-plus propane tanks;

– Twenty-plus gasoline containers;

– Destroyed portable toilets that the city now must pay to replace because they “will never be used again.”

– Tents filled with refuse — and in one case, a homemade bathroom with a ditch draining human waste directly into Wheeling Creek.

That last detail alone underscores why the city must stand firm. This was not simply a matter of unsightliness or inconvenience. The camp became an environmental hazard. Human waste and debris were washing into Wheeling Creek, which runs directly into the Ohio River, the water source for many in our region. No city can allow unmanaged discharge of trash and sewage into its waterways. No community that cares about public health or environmental responsibility could look at those conditions and choose to allow even the possibility of them being replicated elsewhere.

Nor can the taxpayers shoulder the ongoing labor costs and risks that such sites impose. Cleanup required personnel from the city’s Operations and Water Pollution Control departments, along with private contractors. It required police officers clearing the site for safety, animal control rescuing cats, and crews using machines so workers would not be exposed to hazardous materials. And all of that happened the morning after a major snowstorm, when all city workers should have been prioritizing snow and ice removal from the city’s side-streets for the public’s safety.

Critics of the camp’s closure have argued that shutting it down on the cusp of winter represents a “lack of compassion.” That’s a valid concern, but ignoring the camp’s reality was far worse. Compassion is not advocating for people to live in conditions described as a “hellhole.” Compassion is not allowing individuals — many already vulnerable — to exist in freezing weather surrounded by waste, fire hazards, and the constant threat of environmental contamination. Compassion is recognizing that an outdoor camp, even with dumpsters, portable toilets, and surveillance cameras, cannot remain safe or sanitary when occupants will not or cannot maintain it.

To its credit, the city did not simply close the camp and walk away. Officials gave weeks of notice — and not just to the occupants, but to every organization serving the homeless population. Those organizations responded, reopening 30 beds at the Wheeling Salvation Army’s 16th Street facility. The city stepped in with $75,000 from the taxpayers to help staff that new nightly women’s shelter, ensuring that vulnerable residents had an alternative.

As we head toward the new year, though, the message from Herron is clear: “There is no intention of creating another public area exempt from the public property camping ban ordinance.” Again, that’s the only option available.

The experiment with an exempted outdoor camp has shown that even under supervision, even with services offered and facilities provided, such sites inevitably degrade into unsafe, unsanitary, environmentally damaging conditions.

City leaders would be negligent to allow that to happen again.

What Wheeling — and not just city government, but also community and faith organizations — must do is continue supporting those non-profits that provide shelter, services, treatment, and pathways out of homelessness. But the solution cannot — and must not — involve recreating the conditions the city just spent $41,350 to shovel into dumpsters. And again, that $41,350 is a drop in the bucket of the total city taxpayers have spent on the homeless problem over the past five years.

Compassion and responsibility are not opposites. That can’t be lost with this matter.