MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The camping ban on public property in the City of Morgantown will now go to ballot for the people to decide in April of 2025.
In another contentious decision that included close to an hour of public comments, the Morgantown City Council voted to not rescind the previously passed camping ban in a 4-3 vote. Fifth Ward Councilor Danielle Trumble, who voted against the camping ban initially and in favor of the repeal, recently returned from a League of Cities City Summit in Tampa Bay and told her peers it made very clear that a homeless problem is a housing issue, and in the case of Morgantown it’s a matter of nowhere to place those in need.
“It’s not a substance abuse problem, it’s not a mental health problem, and it’s not a poverty problem,” Trumble said. “Those things exacerbate and are factors that play into that, but at the end of the day we don’t have places for people to go.”
The West Virginia Coalition for Housing Action forced the repeal action to the agenda with an amended petition that secured at least 1,310 verified, or 10 percent of the registered voters in the 2023 election. Staff Attorney with Mountain State Justice Lesley Nash spoke at the October meeting when councilors passed the camping ban.
“There’s not really much that I can say that hasn’t already been said,” Nash said. “I think the fact that we’re here tonight less than three months after this council passed its overwhelmingly opposed camping ban speaks powerfully to that issue.”
Morgantown Mayor M. Joe Abu-Ghannam and Councilors Brian Butcher from the Seventh Ward joined Trumble with a vote to repeal. Councilors Weez Michael from the Third Ward, Deputy Mayor Jenny Selin, Dave Harshbarger from the Sixth Ward, and Bill Kawecki from the Second Ward all voted against repealing and sending the measure to the election ballot in April.
“I want to keep Morgantown in the position where we can continue to provide those services,” Kawecki said. “We can’t do that at the threat of our economy, and we can’t do that with the threat of people not wanting to patronize our businesses because they don’t feel safe.”
Butcher told Kawecki that he favors economic development and promoting downtown businesses, but he said there is a growing amount of evidence that clearly shows these bans will not succeed.
“As a person who is opposed to this, I am not opposed to those efforts,” Butcher said. “It’s just that it is my belief, and the evidence would show these kinds of bans don’t accomplish that goal.”
The availability of beds in the community has been an issue that has intensified since the closure of the Bartlett House and passage of the camping ban. Butcher said he has been tracking bed availability for the last three months in Monongalia, Preston, and Taylor Counties, and the number has not changed.
“We’ve been doing it for three months now, and this number has been zero since that started, as in zero availability,” Butcher said. “In shelters throughout the tri-county area.”
The Morgantown General Election is scheduled for April 29, 2025.