MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Monongalia County Commission is looking to help the less fortunate work towards a better life this holiday season.
In participation with the WV Coalition to End Homelessness, Mon County Commission is looking establish a task force for Home for the Holidays. A program that will have it’s first meeting on November 22nd and is taking an aggressive approach to homelessness in Downtown Morgantown.
“It’s very daunting, but it’s one aspect of downtown that we are going to try and deal with,” said Mon County Commission President Tom Bloom. “And it’s to put in 15 families into 15 homes by December 25th,” he said.
The funds to make that achievable are coming through state grants and the WVCEH which makes this aggressive goal possible. This will allow for several services to be provided by the WVCEH including the providing of rent for these households and the replacement costs for any furniture that might be damaged during the year long leases. Along with the financial assistance, there will be case managers provided by WVCEH that will help those households get the proper channels. All with the single goal to get these less fortunate families back on their feet and having productive lives.
“We’re very excited about it, not only will we have people who will be vetting the individuals but we then we will also have and after care program,” said Bloom describing the services.
For landlords and community members, the requirements would be rather simple. To assist in providing fully furnished housing with fully stocked refrigerators at the time these households are selected. Also, in fully embracing the holiday season, the homes would also be provided with holiday decorations and appropriate gifts for children that are living in the household. While it is still early in it’s stages, Bloom says the community response to Home for the Holidays has been excellent, with over 30 people signed up to the task force.
“The response I’ve gotten has been unbelievable, it’s something, and it’s something tangible,” says Bloom about the progress of the task force. “And I look forward to promoting and telling more people about it this week,” he said.
The ultimate goal for the program, is to turn these 15 households into permanent residents in the volunteered homes. In Monongalia County, in particular the Morgantown area, concerns over the rising homeless population has lead to concerns from local business owners being openly addressed during public meetings of both Mon County Commission and Morgantown City Council. With the assistance of the WVCEH provided case managers and the community at large, Bloom feels that homelessness can be tackled this holiday season.
“It’s going to be a community effort, it’s just dealing with one aspect right now of the downtown situation, but we just believe that we had to do something and just sitting there and talking about it, just isn’t going to resolve it,” he said.