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PARKERSBURG -- City officials are reaching out to service organizations, recovery centers and the public to find ways to deal with homelessness, crime and drug issues.
"We'll do what we can, and I think our role is to coordinate it, streamline it and get all those people on the same page," Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce said.
Drug abuse and related crime have been a concern for government officials and the public in recent years as the opioid epidemic raged and overdoses became an all-too-common occurrence. The number of homeless people in the area seems to be ticking up as well, with January's Point in Time Count tallying 41 homeless individuals without shelter, up 12 from the previous year.
At the Sept. 24 Parkersburg City Council meeting, city resident and businessman Wayne Waldeck brought the issues into the spotlight when he urged officials to establish a task force to deal with apparently homeless individuals sleeping on the street and causing residents and employees of Market Street businesses to fear for their safety.
Similar topics were addressed during the public forums at both October council meetings.
At Tuesday's meeting, McKinley Elementary School teacher Cheryl Fiedorczyk said she was discussing a drug abuse lesson with fifth-graders when one student said the city's drug problem is "not fair." When she asked the child to elaborate, he and other kids lamented their inability to play outside because of discarded needles, individuals sleeping or passed out in Friendship Park or other public spaces and people fighting.
"They don't have the opportunity to go home and run and play like we did," she said.
Parkersburg resident Kim Van Rijn said she and her husband have paid people to mow an unimproved section of Jackson Avenue near their property, but "we're now having trouble getting people to mow it because of the needles they find."
They also provide accommodations through the online Airbnb vacation rental program. Van Rijn said they've gotten feedback from people who stayed at their location -- and those who opted not to -- about being in the midst of victims of the opioid epidemic.
"Parkersburg is getting a reputation for being a place to avoid," she said.
Joyce said the Parkersburg Police Department does what it can to address residents' concerns about drug abuse and homelessness, which can, but do not always, overlap.
"Being homeless in and of itself is not, nor will it ever be, a crime," he said.
In the 11 months before October, Parkersburg Police responded to 640 calls for service involving homeless individuals, according to statistics provided by Joyce and Police Chief Joe Martin. Officers arrested 77 homeless individuals during that period and issued 44 citations for crimes such as shoplifting, trespassing and possession of a controlled substance.
But many of the calls involved people's unwanted presence on public or private property, Joyce said. In some situations, when a crime isn't being committed, police can do little more than instruct people to move along.
"Just because they're here walking from point A to point B doesn't mean they're here to commit a crime," Martin said.
Joyce said the city has a reputation among the homeless community "throughout the entire region and … throughout the entire East Coast" as a good place to receive support services. That is one reason he believes homelessness has increased in the city, particularly in the downtown area.
"I think this community has always been, and hopefully will always be, good at taking care of their own," Joyce said.
But those additional people are taxing the services and resources available, he said. And while programs provide food, clothing and other assistance, Joyce said there also needs to be an emphasis on the next steps, such as substance abuse treatment, transitional housing and mental health treatment.
"Under no circumstances are we advocating shutting any of these programs down," he said. "I think we need to better understand what the resource community is doing, how they do it, why they do it."
One effort recently announced is a reunification program aimed at helping homeless individuals get to other areas where they have family and support systems. City Council approved allocating $10,000 for the pilot program, in concert with Westbrook Health Services, at its most recent meeting.
Another issue is people coming to the city for substance abuse treatment, often from outside the area, and leaving programs before completing them, Joyce said.
"They just leave and don't come back," Martin said. "We're trying to identify strategies to fix that."
Joyce said the city will organize community meetings where citizens can comment.
"It'll be open to lots of different elected officials and community leaders," he said.
In addition, they plan to work on guidelines for what residents and property owners can do when it comes to the homeless.
"Ninety percent of what we're talking about is about personal accountability," Joyce said. Programs and resources won't work "until they're willing to make that decision personally."