MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A plan to put 15 families into 15 homes for the holidays is taking shape in Morgantown.
Monongalia County commission president Tom Bloom says they are interviewing potential families and moving forward.
“We put or first two households into apartments, we have two more signing leases today and we have six more households that are in the process,”Bloom said.
Bloom credited the work of Rachel Coen and the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness and added the entire community has come together to make this happen.
“It’s been a really great event,”Bloom said,”I want the community to know it can work, it’s a big change for these individuals, a big change for the community and if you work together to come up with legitimate solutions and not academic reasoning I really believe this can work and it is succeeding.”
Bloom says they have learned valuable lessons from landlords, service providers and less fortunate people that will be important in the future.
The families selected as part of the program will have 12 months of counseling and life-coaching to help them become independent.
Bloom says the program will continue as long as results are satisfactory.