Wheeling's homeless continue to face issues one year after camping ban
Wheeling’s political leaders touted their 2023 camping ban as a tool to move conversations forward. One year later, the city’s homeless remain in a difficult position.
WHEELING – On Nov. 7, 2023, the Wheeling City Council adopted an ordinance restricting camping, sleeping, storing property, and cooking on public property. Those found in violation of the ban could see fines between $10 and $500, or community service.
That ban took effect Jan. 1, 2024, and saw immediate action from the city.
The city of Wheeling attempted to demolish a small, two-person camp on Jan. 3, but was stopped after service providers, citing the failure to issue a court-ordered 14-day notice to vacate, showed up to protest the action. The city responded by halting the demolition and publishing eviction notices at camps, expiring Jan. 18, 2024.
When Jan. 18 arrived, the city faced a winter storm and sat under a state of emergency declaration by then-Governor Jim Justice. Despite that, city employees, Wheeling Police Department law enforcement officers, bulldozers, and dump trucks arrived that morning to demolish a camp in the city’s East Wheeling neighborhood.
The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia sued to block the demolition, but city leaders pushed forward, destroying a dozen camps including several homeless resident’s personal belongings.
Terry, a woman who has experienced homelessness for the last year and a half, was shown in photos published to Wheeling Free Press frantically gathering her belongings before the demolitions occurred. Reflecting on the one-year anniversary of the event, Terry said it was “very, very heartbreaking.”
“I mean, that’s all we have,” Terry said of her belongings. “It’s like you’re having your house demolished in front of you. It was very painful.”
The ACLU of WV ultimately settled their lawsuit with an agreement from the city to create an exempted camp underneath U.S. Route 250 on 18th Street. By April, the city moved to vacate this camp and relocate it across from the Fitzsimmons Dog Park on the eastern side of Wheeling Creek. In November, the city moved its exempted camp—for a third time that year—1,500 feet northwest, citing access concerns during the winter. The camp is expected to be moved again in Spring 2025.
Sleepy, a resident of the exempted camp, told this reporter the constant moves had caused issues for people. “The move back and forth is just going to create…instability. It seems like [the city] is trying to do something, and they’re just trying to hide us.”
Terry said the moves had been disruptive. “You have to lift up, pull everything up, take it, and move it down again,” she said. “Mentally, it seems like you’re just getting settled and you’re making your place the way that you would like it to be and then you’re told that you have to pick everything back up and move again.”
The current iteration of the exempted camp site has brought new concerns for the safety of its residents. The area, known to locals as the “old dog pound,” sits along Wheeling Creek underneath the west Exit 1A overpass connecting Interstate 70 to U.S. Route 250.
The city has allegedly used the area to dump municipal waste on the ground before it is loaded into higher-capacity containers and taken to the county’s landfill. This reporter witnessed bagged trash being loaded from the ground into larger dumpsters during a Jan. 15, 2025 visit. Rodents and cats reside near the dump site, too, prompting concerns over potential negative health impacts. During dry periods, trucks regularly kick up dust decreasing air quality in the area.
City leaders have long claimed their camping ban was meant to change the conversation on how to remedy the situation. After one year of enforcing its ban, some minor improvements have been made—access to portable toilets, dumpsters, and potable water when temperatures are above freezing. Despite those efforts, it’s not clear that the situation facing Wheeling’s most vulnerable citizens has significantly changed due to the ban.