PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — The City of Parkersburg is considering an ordinance that would prohibit additional treatment beds from being established in the city for at least a year.
The ordinance is scheduled for a first reading at City Council’s regular meeting Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
“We feel that we have more than enough,” said Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce on a Friday appearance of MetroNews “Talkline.”
Numbers from the state Department of Health and Human Resources show Parkersburg has over 19 percent of licensed treatment beds for the entire state of West Virginia. However, the city accounts for less than 2 percent of the state’s population.
In total, there are 283 state-licensed treatment beds in Wood County, compared to just 30 five years ago. All but 80 of them are within the city limits, with St. Joseph Recovery Center opening with 86 beds in 2019 and 75 at Clean & Clear Advantage in downtown Parkersburg last year.
Joyce said the overflow has resulted in a negative impact on the community.
“Shoplifting has increased by 42 percent, trespassing by 36 percent, failure to appear or capias warrants are up 422 percent in our police department. Vacant structure fires are up 400 percent,” he said. “We attribute a lot of that to big spike in homelessness.”
Parkersburg has seen an uptick of out-of-state homeless individuals in recent years, the mayor said.
“I want our citizens to get the treatment they need and get their lives back in order, but at some point, this heavy amount of beds and money, it needs to be assessed: is this really a good idea and can we do it better?” Joyce said.
Services are being strained because of the growing homeless problem in the area. Joyce is calling on the DHHR and state lawmakers to address funding to his city.
“This ordinance is not an anti-rehabilitation treatment ordinance. This ordinance is really to give us the opportunity to assess the true impact and give the Legislature and DHHR time to figure out what they can do,” Joyce said.
Facilities like Recovery Point Parkersburg and group homes for people dealing with addiction, would be included in the moratorium, Joyce said.