MORGANTOWN, W.Va. Bartlett Housing Solutions will not receive any state funding from the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness or the West Virginia Department of Human Services this year. The designated emergency triage shelter in the community has traditionally received $166,000 of its half-million-dollar operating budget from those two organizations.
Instead, the Rainbow House, an LGBTQ+ shelter, will receive $250,000 in the coming year.
Morgantown Fifth Ward councilor Danielle Trumble put fellow councilors on notice during their most recent meeting.
“It’s definitely something we should all have on our radar,” Trumble said. “I’ve been raising concerns about their funding and financial state for the last several months, but this puts them in an even worse position than even I anticipated.”
The Bartlett House first opened in 1985 and offers a triage shelter, rapid re-housing, and permanent supportive housing assistance. The shelter recently completed a move and expansion from downtown Morgantown to Hazel’s House of Hope.
“If that shelter closes, the only other shelter in our community will be Rainbow House, which was funded, but they are limited in the population that can go there,” Trumble said.
The most recent Point in Time count of homeless people said there were slightly more than 120 homeless in the Morgantown area.
“We are going to have to come up with another plan for what our unsheltered neighbors have as options,” Trumble said.
Seventh Ward councilor Brian Butcher, also a Rainbow House board member, called the situation a crisis and said the council should find federal grants to support the Bartlett House. Monitoring the situation over the next three to six months will be crucial, according to Butcher.
“Try to meet people’s needs, whether that looks like getting them to other shelter spaces in the nearby area or whatever that might look like,” Butcher said.
The Bartlett Housing Solutions Board of Directors is preparing a response.
The Rainbow House provides temporary shelter, resources to find long-term housing, mental health support, gender-affirming care, and employment assistance, among other services.