WHEELING — Members of Wheeling City Council affirmed their commitment to help members of the homeless community this past week following turbulent talk about the condition of the city’s exempted homeless encampment.

The camp, located along Wheeling Creek near Peninsula Cemetery just north of Interstate 70, had drawn criticism when trash and debris could be seen along the creek banks and a portable toilet had been overturned. Councilman Ben Seidler had urged local service agencies to help keep the camp clean and orderly, or otherwise, he would consider suggesting its closure in the future.

Councilwoman Connie Cain subsequently noted that the city not only helps channel funding to programs that help the homeless, the city also provides dumpsters and portable toilets for the camp. She also stated that encouraging service agencies to help keep the camp clean was not too much to ask.

This past week, Seidler noted that volunteers have been at the camp helping keep things orderly, and he publicly expressed appreciation for their efforts.

“I want to give a shout out to Street MOMs and some other volunteers who really did step up and do some hard work at the homeless camp to help get it under control there,” Seidler stated late last week. “As I’ve said continuously, the folks down there deserve more. That camp has not been a necessarily safe and clean place, and I know we’re sick of talking about this, but it’s not something I’m going to let go of. It’s important to me. It’s important to our community. And we want to continue to put resources out there that are productive and worthwhile to help those folks that are in need get the resources they need.”

Cain agreed, explaining that city officials remain determined to help the homeless population despite what at times appears to be an onslaught of criticism over how the city attempts to address these issues.

“We’ve taken a lot of slack for the homeless camp,” Cain said. “Our intention is to see that they get help — not to enable, but to get them back on their feet and to move them forward. That is no way to live for anyone. We’re not out here to be mean when we speak out against something that we see that is not working. We wish that all organizations would work together for the betterment of the homeless.”

Cain noted that efforts are underway in Charleston to not only get a public camping ban put in place, but Senate Bill 134 also contains a provision stating that violators on a first offense would receive a warning citation and be offered a free, one-way bus ticket to select major cities. Wheeling’s ban against camping on public properties went into effect last year, but the exempted camp was made available for homeless individuals who had nowhere else to turn. Cain indicated that it would be a disaster if communities viewed Wheeling as a destination for a one-way bus ticket for people in need.

“Even though we do have a ban here, what we don’t want is for them to give them bus tickets to other big cities — then they start busing here,” she said. “Then we have a major problem.”

Homeless individuals need compassion and coordinated efforts to bring them services that have an impact, Cain noted.

“Let’s go ahead and get treatment for them,” she said. “There’s really no big mental health facilities in the state of West Virginia. A lot of them are going to jail — sitting in jail just to get an evaluation. We’ve got to do better.”

Members of Wheeling City Council on Thursday voted to direct a portion of its opioid settlement money from the state of West Virginia to Northwood Health System. This $66,000 allocation will help fund a new position that will hopefully help provide another tool to help at-risk individuals get their lives back on track and stay off the streets.

“This is — obviously with our opioid settlement funds — funding a position on the Northwood Health System’s ACT Team,” Seidler explained. “They help them avoid becoming homeless again. They may contact these individuals multiple times a week to make sure that they’ve got their medication and the resources they need to stay successful and independent. It’s a great program, and it’s a great use of our opioid funds.”

According to Northwood Health System’s description of the program, ACT stands for Assertive Community Treatment. The program focuses on individuals with severe mental illness who are most at-risk of psychiatric crisis and hospitalization, homelessness and involvement in the criminal justice system. ACT is a multidisciplinary team approach with an emphasis on outreach in the community. The goal of ACT is to reduce hospitalizations, increase housing stability and improve the quality of life for individuals with the most severe symptoms of mental illness.

Seidler noted that this is a one-time contribution that provides funding for the new position for one year only.

“They fully believe they can get grants to continue the program moving forward,” he said, noting that the organization is able to take on a certain amount of clients per full-time employee. This will allow them to expand their reach to help more individuals, Seidler explained.

“We’ve spent a lot of time and energy in the city working directly with Northwood Health System to make sure we can guarantee admission there,” Seidler said. “It comes down to an acceptance issue at this point. We have tons of resources in this city for this, and the majority of those folks who are looking for assistance can find that assistance here.”

Many of the individuals in the local homeless community either have substance abuse disorders or mental health issues, Seidler added. He said the new Crisis Response Team — a civilian unit housed in the Wheeling Police Department — is also helping.

“The Crisis Response Team is a dedicated group of social workers and specially trained law enforcement officers to help assist there and respond to and help those folks navigate to resources they need,” Seidler said. “We all certainly understand that it’s not a simple matter of getting someone into rehab now — 28 days later, it doesn’t change your life. But the wrap-around services after that — the assisted living, the sober living facilities, the life skills, the job services — those types of things, at least within the capabilities that we have today, help make a difference there.”

Seidler noted that there was no easy, universal solution that will prove to be effective for every individual.

“Does that mean that everybody is going to be successful? No. But I’m not going to give up pushing forward for that,” Seidler said. “So I don’t mind being the villain … because it sounds polarizing, but at the end of the day, we have to continue to do what we can do to help these individuals get off the streets and get back to normal, productive lives and restore their relationships with their families, their children and the people they care about and get them out of this cycle of addition and drugs.”

Cain added that the community as a whole needs to come together and tackle these kinds of challenges collaboratively.

“The city is about helping,” she said. “Anybody out there who wants to help with any project that’s going to be coming up in the near future, that’s what we want — involvement from the residents.”