MORGANTOWN, W.Va.– There will be a warming shelter for Monongalia County residents operated by Catholic Charities West Virginia (CCWV) and funded by the Monongalia County Commission and the City of Morgantown this year. The shelter will have a capacity of around 20 and operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. from December 15 through March 15 at Hazel’s House of Hope in the space formerly occupied by the Hope Hill Sober Center.
Commissioner Tom Bloom said priority is given to Monongalia County residents due to the funding sources and enrolled or willing to enroll in the Homeless Information Management System.
“Those who are utilizing the warming shelter need to be registered in the Homeless Information Management System (HMIS) or start the process, so we can help the individual,” Bloom said.
Assistant City Manager with the city of Morgantown Emily Muzzarelli said CCWV will be given the latitude to determine how that priority is determined.
“We are allowing the organization, Catholic Charities who would be running that to determine what that meant and what priority meant,” Muzzarelli said. ” So, we don’t want to provide too much information on how to operate a shelter.”
Commission President Sean Sikora said some rules have to be put in place to ensure resources are available for the residents of Monongalia County. Sikora said the rule will be compassionately enforced but is needed due to an increasing number of people from outside the area reporting for services.
“We don’t expect anybody to get turned away,” Sikora said. “There is a real concern that this community is so charitable and so giving that we become a beacon for people to come here,” Sikora said.
Bloom said over the weekend there was a mother with a child that needed accommodations, but all area beds were full, highlighting the need for the condition. Bloom said the information they’ve received has been first-hand accounts from people who have made their way to Morgantown from other areas for services.
“Not only is it from Huntington and Charleston, but we’ve had requests from Pittsburgh, and we know of two people that came here from Texas,” Bloom said. “They were even told to come here because there wouldn’t be any consequences to their actions, and that’s what they told us.”
Seventh Ward Councilor Brian Butcher said determining who is a resident and who is not could be a challenge.
“You’re talking about a person who doesn’t have a house, right? So, what is a Mon County resident in that case?” Butcher asked. ” I talk to and interact with people regularly who are unhoused and the last residence they had wasn’t in Mon County but they’ve been in Mon County for 25 years.”
CCWV will collect use data to help develop a baseline cost for shelter operations for the budgeting and grant application purposes.
Commissioner Jeff Arnett encouraged any organization planning to operate the warming shelter for the 2025-26 season to submit grant applications in a timely fashion. The grant application process for the City of Morgantown is completed in December of 2024, and the county will conduct their grant process in January of 2025.
“If Catholic Charities West Virginia, or any other group, wants to run an emergency shelter next year, we need them to include that in our grant process, and we can vet earlier rather than at the last minute.”