MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In Morgantown, downtown property owner Tricia DiCenso is providing first-hand accounts of damage she has suffered and dangers encountered by property owners and visitors. DiCenso, with Red Brick Properties is one of several downtown business owners who have documented damages and have called for action from the city council for at least the last two years.
During the July 2 meeting of Morgantown City Council, Third Ward Councilor Louise Michael read from a prepared statement calling for an expansion of the local ordinance governing camping in the city limits (941.05). What followed was a letter from the legal non-profit Mountain State Justice, signed by several other advocates and agencies, calling for affordable housing and more treatment.
The letter in part says, “Public camping bans do not and cannot address the root causes of homelessness, which include, but are not limited to, poverty, violence, and disability. To the contrary, fines, arrests, prosecutions, and criminal records are entirely incompatible with securing safe, affordable housing,” the letter states. “The only solution to homelessness is housing.”
“It’s affecting all of us, our health, and our safety downtown,” DiCenso said. “But she’s the only one that has responded to us, and she just asked for a discussion, and look what happened to her—being publicly condemned by a group of advocates.”
On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” DiCenso said she has met with Morgantown City Manager Kim Haws, Chief of Police Eric Powell, and the Executive Director of Milan Puskar Health Right, who has distributed the needles for the last several months. She said all of the officials have been pleasant, but the key group to bring about change in Morgantown City Council has not been willing to address crime, vandalism, open drug use, and drug dealing.
“The crime has increased so dramatically. It’s not just people wandering the streets hanging around; they’re breaking and entering; they’re stealing things, and it’s just not what it should be,” DiCenso said. “It’s very, very dangerous for the young students that are living there.”
Recently, Dicenso said nine downtown breaking and entering reports were made with police, three from properties that she owns. She said when a mailbox was vandalized at one of her properties, it was a nine-month process to replace it. Not only was the replacement expensive, but tenants on the property went without regular mail delivery for that nine-month period as well.
“They tore my mailbox off the wall that had been there for 25 years,” DiCenso said. “I had to replace it with something the post office would approve, and that ended up costing me $5,000 for that.”
Over the Memorial Day weekend this year, she was preparing to move a new tenant into a downtown apartment. The apartment had been cleaned, painted, and prepared for the new resident who arrived to move in with help from parents.
“When they opened the door, the apartment had been trashed,” DiCenso said. “There were used needles all over, clothing, food, graffiti on the wall, poop in the toilet, and all the appliances had been stolen.”
Dicenso also said existing business tenants are beginning to exit as well. Unconfirmed reports indicate there are as many as 20 vacant business properties in the downtown Morgantown area.
“The last straw was when he looked out his window, which faced into the alley, and there was someone pooping right in front of his window,” DiCenso said. “He said he couldn’t take it anymore; he said he loves downtown Morgantown, but he just can’t take it anymore.”