West Virginia gubernatorial candidates differ on homeless policy

The city of Wheeling, W.Va., enacted its camping ban for homeless people earlier this year. Since April, this spot along Maintenance Trail has been the one legal place for people to camp. (Daniel Finsley | Finsley Creative for West Virginia Watch)

In West Virginia’s gubernatorial race, candidates have seemingly differing views about how government should respond to homelessness. 

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that laws that prohibit homeless people from sleeping outside do not violate the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, even when there are no shelter beds available.

Advocates for homeless people say the ruling could open the door to more states and cities criminalizing homelessness by enacting camping restrictions. Already, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered that state agencies remove homeless encampments from state parks, beaches, agency buildings, highways and the areas between them, the Associated Press reported. 

In West Virginia, a Morgantown councilwoman has suggested the city expand its camping ban. 

Nationally, more than 650,000 are estimated to be homeless in the United States, the most since the country started doing point-in-time counts in 2007, the Associated Press reported. 

In West Virginia, the state Department of Human Services recently released a $373,000 study about homelessness. Senate Bill 239, passed during the 2023 legislative session, required the study to be completed and submitted to lawmakers for consideration of legislation relating to the homeless in the state. 

Asked whether he would sign a bill that legislated a statewide ban on camping in public, were one to come across his desk, Democratic candidate Steve Williams, the mayor of Huntington, said he believes in addressing the root causes of homelessness, not just the symptoms. 

“While I understand the concerns about public safety and the use of public spaces, a statewide ban on public camping without providing adequate housing and support services would only criminalize our most vulnerable citizens,” Williams said in an emailed statement. “I would focus on expanding affordable housing, increasing access to mental health and addiction services, and creating comprehensive programs to help individuals transition out of homelessness. 

“Addressing homelessness requires compassion, support and real solutions, not punitive measures,” he said. 

The city of Huntington does have a camping ban. Between April and mid July, the Huntington Police Department wrote nine citations for loitering, camping or trespassing to homeless people, according to the city’s response to a Freedom of Information Act request. 

The campaign for Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the state’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, did not respond to emails asking if Morrisey would support a statewide ban on camping.

But Morrisey, as the state’s attorney general, did sign on to an amicus “friend of the court” brief on behalf of Grants Pass, the Oregon city at the heart of the Supreme Court ruling that enacted laws prohibiting people from sleeping in public. 

In the court filing, the two dozen states argue that they are responsible for protecting the health and safety of all their residents, homeless or not, but the policies should not be up to federal governments. 

“[States] sovereign duties also include defining crimes and enforcing a criminal code within their borders,” they argue. “They do not always approve of each other’s policies on homelessness, much less the broader set of policies other States choose to pursue in their criminal codes. But they all agree these choices are theirs to make — not the federal government’s, and certainly not the federal courts’.”

In an earlier statement to West Virginia Watch about the amicus brief, Morrisey said that local and state governments should have the power to select the solutions that work best for them.

“Instead, as we’ve pointed out in our amicus brief, decisions like Grants Pass effectively turn federal courts into homeless czars, stripping away traditional state authority over criminal law and making the problem worse,” he said in the statement. “As the brief said, that’s the wrong approach — this issue is a matter of local concern.”