(Written by Savannah Jones)
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Mountain State Justice Attorney Lindsey Jacobs said the nonprofit law firm will continue to push back against a camping ban expansion being proposed for downtown Morgantown.
“We’re gonna keep showing up at every council meeting. We’re gonna keep pressing for evidence-based solutions, and if we end up with bans, whether that’s at the city, county, state level, we’re gonna look at legal ways to challenge any sort of attempt at further criminalizing the most vulnerable people in our community,” she said on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town.”
Amid a heated debate surrounding the proposed expansion of the camping ban mentioned in Sec. 941.05(c) of the Morgantown City Code from just parks to residential properties, city streets, alleyways, and sidewalks, Jacobs said the criminalization of homelessness is not an effective solution.
“I feel like if camping bans worked, we’d see less homelessness because we already have a camping ban that’s being enforced along the rail trail,” she said.
Homelessness has been a consistent topic of discussion at Morgantown City Council meetings since April. Jacobs attributes the discussion to her attendance with the Morgantown Coalition for Housing Action to provide “evidence-based solutions” to homelessness as opposed to bans.
Jacobs said she feels the talk of expanding the city’s camping ban stems from a recent Supreme Court decision on June 28th, allowing cities and municipalities to outlaw camping under the Eighth Amendment, even if there is not appropriate shelter for those experiencing homelessness.
She said homelessness is a complex issue, and a solution will not be found in days or months but in years.
“The easy thing that folks want to reach for is more law enforcement involvement, but criminalization of homelessness is actually at odds with achieving long-term safe housing,” she said.
Jacobs said she hopes to see the triage shelter reopen, but even if it does, there are not enough beds for the current unhoused population in Morgantown. She said the primary need is fair housing.
The camping ban proposed by Councilor Louise Michael is in response to several reports of theft, vandalism, and drug use by downtown residents and business owners. Jacobs, a business owner herself, said she acknowledges that there are issues that need to be addressed but feels problems, specifically relating to drug usage, are exaggerated.
After serving on clean-up crews for three years, Jacobs said she commonly runs into needle caps but has only come upon needles on two occasions.
“Downtown is not the wasteland that folks paint it to be. I spend, like I said, a good portion of every day down there, and I just don’t think that’s the case,” she said.
She said the symptoms of homelessness that cause problems downtown, such as people using the bathroom outside and leaving trash, can be addressed by providing accessible bathrooms for those without shelter and talking with them to determine what their needs are.
At a city council meeting Tuesday, West Virginia University Police Chief Sherry St. Clair discussed a recent survey that revealed several WVU students and faculty saying they don’t feel safe downtown.
Jacobs said that she will always advocate for safety, but she feels people are mistaking being uncomfortable for being unsafe.
“We don’t have our right to comfort, and I think a lot of folks are confusing comfort and safety,” she said. “When folks say they feel unsafe, I always ask them to tell me what that means to them because often it means that they’re uncomfortable, and the truth is, many people are very uncomfortable seeing poor people seeing people who are struggling with their mental health on the street. They don’t want to see that.”
She said people have constitutional rights to be downtown, regardless of if they have housing or not. She emphasized that people can only be removed if they are committing criminal acts such as assault or robbery.