CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Charleston City Council is moving forward with a plan to establish better ways to address homeless encampments on public property.
Council passed a resolution last week which would allow the city to provide at least two week’s notice to those staying at an encampment if it’s on public property. The vote comes nearly a year after Charleston Mayor Danny Jones ordered the city’s homeless encampment “Tent City” to be dismantled.
Under the resolution, the Prestera Center for Mental Health Services in Charleston will receive an annual increase of $48,000 to $75,000 in funds from the city. That will allow Prestera to hire two full-time outreach workers who will work with police, homeless individuals and businesses.
“I think anything that the city can do to assist people that are homeless is a positive,” said Traci Strickland, director of homeless programs at Prestera. “I think having a uniformed policy and how to handle the situation is also very positive.”
Last year, no warning was given to those homeless individuals living at “Tent City” along the Elk River. Jones said he wanted to remove people there due to safety issues which included freezing cold temperatures.
“The face that there is an encampment of 20 individuals living on our streets — the numbers are what is upsetting,” Strickland said.
Prestera and other programs like Covenant House and Roark-Sullivan Lifeway Center help the homeless on a daily basis. Strickland focuses on getting those individuals off the streets and into homes.
“My concern is housing people,” she said. “If they’re in “Tent Cities” or at an encampment, if they’re sleeping alone on a sidewalk, it’s all unfortunate and that’s the part we deal with.”
The workers at Prestera and other homeless programs in the Kanawha Valley will work to facilitate conflict resolution between the homeless and the community and will also assist with housing and other social services.