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Parkersburg area housing efforts discussed, celebrated

Approximately 275 improvements tallied in six months

By Evan Bevins 4 min read

PARKERSBURG -- The purpose of a luncheon organized Thursday by Parkersburg City Councilwoman Wendy Tuck and the Circles Campaign of the Mid-Ohio Valley was to report on how many people had been assisted with housing issues in the last six months.

The target of 50 improvements in 50 weeks has already been surpassed, but even before people started sharing the results of their organizations' efforts, another goal of the gathering was being accomplished.

Circles Campaign Executive Director Lisa Doyle-Parsons was trying to find help for a couple at risk of being evicted. She wasn't sure where to tell them to seek assistance but a representative of the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness said they had a program that might work.

"By having all these people in the same space together, we were able to find an organization that could help," Doyle-Parsons said.

Thursday's lunch at First United Methodist Church on Juliana Street in Parkersburg follows a March event that brought together more than 30 businesses and organizations to provide information about ways to improve housing situations. A goal to make 50 such improvements in 50 weeks was set.

After tallying up the reports from representatives of WVCEH, the Family Crisis Intervention Center, Westbrook Health Services, the City of Parkersburg, the Children's Home Society of West Virginia and more, Tuck declared they'd already surpassed the goal - and then some.

"We have just cracked 275, people," Tuck said.

That number includes Consumer Credit Counseling Services of the Mid-Ohio Valley helping 12 people maintain housing and preventing 24 foreclosures, as well as two homeless families who took up residence in the Parkersburg Housing Authority's rent-assisted Homecrest Manor apartments.

"During August and September, we put 14 people into, either they got an apartment, they got into a boarding room or they got a house," said Lt. Anthony Rowe, with the Salvation Army of Parkersburg.

Many of those activities were things the organizations would already have been working on. The value of meeting together and comparing notes, Tuck said, is to make service providers aware of all the options available and work together to make a dent in the problem.

"People made partnerships," she said. "We've had several realtors that didn't know they could use" the Parkersburg/Wood County HOME Consortium's Down Payment Assistance Program or West Virginia Housing Development Fund.

According to a release from the City of Parkersburg, which administers the consortium, the Down Payment program closed on 12 loans totaling $160,788 to assist income-eligible, first-time home buyers so far this year. Another five loans are expected to be processed by the end of the year.

Rachel Elliott, housing counselor with Consumer Credit Counseling, said she's gotten a lot of referrals from individuals and entities she connected with at the March meeting.

"It's created more resources for us to tap into ... more knowledge as to who can help with what," she said.

Rowe said people don't have to come to the Salvation Army shelter to see and know that the homeless population in the area has increased. But he said he has been noticing a change, thanks in part to a partnership with Westbrook, started about a year ago, that helps folks at the shelter get important documents like driver's license and connect them to other resources.

"What we're seeing ... is people willing to change their lives, to do better," he said.

Doyle-Parsons and Tuck said they want the group to continue meeting. Doyle-Parsons said she believes one of the next challenges to tackle is the lack of available housing in the area after a recent study showed a low inventory of residential units in Wood County.

Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.

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