MORGANTOWN, W.Va. Several groups providing services to the unsheltered community in Morgantown will meet Thursday to improve communications and, hopefully, the outcomes for the people they serve. On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” Bartlett House Solutions Executive Director Keri DeMasi Koontz says the meeting will include representatives from Morgantown RAMP, Milan Pushkar Health Right, the Monongalia County Warming Shelter, and the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness.
“I think there are philosophical differences within our community, but we need to find a common ground,” DeMasi Koontz said.
The warming shelter at Hazel’s House of Hope was funded by the city of Morgantown, the Monongalia County Commission, the Mylan Puskar Foundation, and Your Community Foundation. When it opened on Dec. 1, as many as 50 people came for shelter, and at its closing 105 days later, there were an average of more than 60 people each night to escape the weather.
Still more, about 50 people with children or other circumstances, were given access to hotel rooms through Morgantown RAMP, a group from the First Presbyterian Church.
Many of the people served suffer from addiction, mental health issues, and chronic ailments.
“No system is perfect, but having a system at least gives us a guide and allows us to look at areas that we need to address, change, or pivot—whatever the case may be,” DeMasi Koontz said.
When the shelter ceased operations on March 15, some of those people had no other place to go and ended up in downtown Morgantown. The influx of people has exposed gaps in services and brought differences among agencies to the surface.
“If we’re not talking to each other and sitting down to figure out what works and finding a common ground despite philosophical differences, then we’re doing a disservice to ourselves as organizations, a disservice to our community, and a disservice to the people we assist,” DeMasi Koontz said.
The main participants in the meeting are Demasi Koontz, Morgantown Seventh Ward Councilman, RAMP representative Brian Butcher, Laura Jones from Milan Puskar Health Right, Becky Rodd from the Monongalia County Warming Shelter, and the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness.
“Brian is coming as the organizer of RAMP in the community; Laura obviously helped me and myself operate Bartlett; the coalition; and Becky, who helped operate the shelter this past winter,” DeMasi Koontz said.
All sides are looking for ways to get beyond the professional and personal differences that have been publicized over the last year. The hope is to develop a common goal moving forward, regardless of personal beliefs, to get more people into permanent homes.
“There obviously has to be personal accountability on all fronts,” DeMasi Koontz said. “There needs to be personal accountability among service providers, clients, and community members. There’s a lot of frustration, and it’s justified.”