MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The withholding of the camping ban on municipal property within the City of Morgantown has resulted in vocal supporters of the repeal voicing frustrations in front of Morgantown City Council.
The public portion of the council’s regular meeting on Tuesday had members of the Morgantown community as well as an activist with Mountain State Justice expressing varying levels of disappointment, coupled with a repeated call to improve affordable housing options and area services for unsheltered individuals. In the first formal meeting hosted since the 2025 Morgantown Municipal Election hosted on April 29, in which the camping ban repeal was voted down by a 986 to 905 vote margin, residents who spoke gave scathing comments regarding the attitude of some members of the Morgantown City Council and the community over the topic of unsheltered individuals as a whole.
“Right outside this door, it states that the city council resolves to act with a helpful intent,” said resident Paige Reiring. “When faced with the opportunity, I know that I will make the radically kind choice every single time, what choice will you make.”
Those who spoke during the public portion gave varying perspectives on what they felt was a negative reflection of both the Morgantown community and the Morgantown City Council. This included interactions with unsheltered individuals who alleged that they were intentionally mistreated by Morgantown residents, frustrations over the contentious arguments on social media over the topic, which had a near 50/50 split by the time polls closed on election day Tuesday, and the Morgantown voting populace at large, which garnered a just under 15 percent voter participation rate. This is despite collecting over 1,300 signatures in the petition efforts to put the camping ban repeal on a ballot.
“There’s action behind my words, and there’s authenticity to my values,” said Reiring. “I gave my time and my resources, and in return I built a community, despite the 986 people who voted to uphold the ban.”
Mountain State Justice activist Lindsey Jacobs spoke amongst the vocal residents who chose to speak during the public portion, where she explicitly called out the Morgantown City Council as a governing body. During the time she spoke during the meeting, Jacobs mentioned meetings that took place over the course of a year where ideas on potentially finding affordable housing in the area eventually regressed to discussions over appropriate bed options in the shelter located at Hazel’s House of Hope. With what she feels was a lack of genuine desire to address long-term solutions for unsheltered individuals by the council, the maintaining of the Morgantown camping ban was a disappointment, but not surprising.
“It’s so frustrating when I come up here and you all immediately look into the corners or whatever because you don’t care about what any of us have to say,” said Jacobs, addressing the council. “And then you wonder why we don’t respect you.”
Despite the referendum essentially established after the Morgantown Municipal Election results, the members of the community who spoke for the repeal of the camping ban doubled down on their calls to address affordable housing while openly announcing plans to counteract the camping ban. This included the hosting of ‘Know Your Rights’ training by Mountain State Justice members, in which the members of the council and members of the Morgantown Police Department were invited to attend. While a decent amount of Morgantown residents continue to voice approval of the decision made by voters, the residents who voted for the repeal of the camping ban on municipal property appear to be ready to be vocal and active members of the community.
“We’re going to train up the citizenry so they know what to look for, we’ll make sure that all of you are invited because it would probably would be really good for you all to know, we’re not done,” said Jacobs. “We’re going to keep showing up and look forward to continuing to press you to solve the dual problems of keeping people housed.”