On Dec. 1, the city of Wheeling withdrew its only legal encampment zone’s exempt status, continuing to employ restrictive actions against people suffering from homelessness. As updates continue to emerge about Wheeling’s homelessness issue, it is safe to say: encampment bans do not solve the issue of homelessness. It only makes the path to escaping homelessness even harder through criminalization.

Because one in three people experiencing homelessness have substance abuse issues and two-thirds of those people have a history of drug or alcohol abuse, barriers to accessing housing and obtaining permanent housing can be extremely difficult. Although the city may continue to employ actions that criminalize homelessness, investing in more harm reduction tactics that allow unhoused individuals to have agency in their life decisions while also acknowledging the long process out of addiction would be more effective in solving homelessness.

According to the West Virginia Department of Human Service’s 2024 Assessment of West Virginia’s Homeless Population, the West Virginia counties that enforced restrictive actions against homelessness had the highest number of people experiencing homelessness. The continuous actions enacted by the city of Wheeling that criminalize homelessness are not going to solve the issue, as residents continue to see. People experiencing homelessness will never escape the cycle of never-ending poverty and displacement if more restrictive actions are enforced.

To solve this problem, the city must employ and invest in more harm reduction tactics that recognize the gravity of addiction and untreated mental health issues. More harm reduction initiatives that cater to people suffering from addiction, such as needle exchanges and free and accessible Narcan distribution, would be much more effective in solving homelessness than more additional restrictive actions.

Not only must the city employ these tactics, but it also must provide more funding to shelters, and implement more Housing First programs that recognize putting an unhoused person in a home should always be the first step in helping someone escape homelessness.

Homeless shelters in Wheeling, like The Life Hub, are already at full capacity, with low to no beds remaining for unhoused people looking for shelter services. This forces people suffering from homelessness to find other places to stay. Now that it’s illegal to camp in any public space in Wheeling, breaking the law is inevitable. Because this policy has gone into effect during the first month of winter, places such as abandoned buildings are going to be inhabited in order for unhoused people to escape the cold. The city must ask itself, “is this really a better option?”

Camping bans do not address the causes of homelessness, like lack of affordable housing or the cost of healthcare and health insurance. The criminalization of homelessness also imposes fines and even potential jail sentences for unhoused people, which makes the pathway to housing and societal reintegration even more difficult when few jobs that pay a liveable wage hire people with criminal records.

The solution? Employ and invest in harm reduction tactics that allow people suffering from homelessness to have agency in their own decisions while also acknowledging the gravity of addiction.

Although Wheeling residents who advocate for more restrictive measures may argue that more policing may make the city look and feel cleaner, these actions are just temporarily hiding the issue of homelessness instead of solving it. Other restrictive measure advocates may argue that harm reduction efforts such as needle exchanges, Narcan distributions, supervised injection sites and low-barrier shelters may attract more addicts to the city and cause more drug use. However, studies from the International Journal of Drug Policy show that harm reduction efforts are much more effective than restrictive measures in reducing harmful behaviors in people experiencing homelessness. Instead of implementing restrictive actions such as public encampment bans that criminalize homelessness throughout Wheeling and elsewhere in West Virginia, the city should be funding and supporting current and new harm reduction efforts in order to make substantial and long-term progress in eliminating homelessness.

The city cannot expect to essentially ban homelessness and then wonder why every bed is taken in homeless shelters and why people have still not found permanent housing. Housing First initiatives must take precedence in treating unhoused people. Acknowledging the gravity of addiction and mental health issues, specifically among people experiencing homelessness, is essential in creating permanent change.

Shannon Wack is a graduate of Wheeling Park High School who currently is a student at Chatham University in Pittsburgh.