Hedrick Scalcon

Blog #2

I interviewed a friend of mine who wishes to be called Joe. Joe has interned with John
Sonnenday in the spring of 2016, working side by side with him. He spent time at the Bartlett
house interviewing multiple homeless people, went out to count the number of homeless people
for the coordinating council on homelessness and assisted him as his marketing intern. Joe told
me that over the past couple of years the number of homeless people has dropped but is still a
huge issue. One thing he learned while working with the CCOH was that there are a lot of people
giving money to panhandlers. You may think that is a good idea because youre getting involved
and trying to make a difference but it is not. There are many services in the Morgantown area
that help with homelessness. So, the money you are giving to them is most likely going to use on
something they dont need, such as alcohol. Joe told me that when the CCOH does its count on
homeless people, they go to the woods in the outskirts of Morgantown because thats where
dozens of homeless people set up camps and start a little community. If/when you do encounter
someone panhandling, the best thing you can do is treat them like a person, treat them with
humanity. Remember that these people are humans too, earlier in life maybe they have had
hardship, they could be just down in luck right now. If we treat them with respect and dignity,
maybe thats all they need so they can get on the right path and turn their life around. When I
asked joe what the biggest cause of poverty in Morgantown was he said it was most likely from
the lack of well-paying jobs. Also, once school is out, once students leave, businesses get less
money, people can be getting laid off which in turn can result in homelessness. One experience
joe had with the homeless was at the Bartlett house. He met this man whose family was living in
the Bartlett house and he was not allowed to stay with them, could not remember why. This man
had been in and out of jail and has been struggling to find work. He remembers telling him that
its a viscous cycle for him, no one wants to hire a criminal. When I asked joe about how the
community could help he told me that we need more people to volunteer. At the CCOH, they
used to have a big community picnic under the farmers market downtown on spruce street. This
event raised awareness, provided food for those in need and activities, etc. When asked about
whether or not the services provided are adequate he said that if we want to see a fast result to fix
homelessness, they need to be more funded. Organizations like CCOH do a tremendous job with
what they are provided with.
For my second interview, I went to Salvation army and spoke with a gentleman who
works there, who wanted to go by Matthew. First, Matthew gave me a bunch of statistics on the
homelessness in Morgantown. He showed me a broucher and its headline was Since 1897 the
salvation army has been proving service to residents of Monongalia and Preston counties.
Statistics show that, 26% of county residence got welfare, and 11% have an income below the
poverty level. So, if there are roughly 100,000 people living in the Monongalia area that means
about 11,000 people are experiencing poverty. Matthew provided me with the various services
the salvation army in Morgantown has to offer. Those services include: feeding programs, rent
and utility assistance, groceries, clothing vouchers, hygiene items, 1st time prescriptions and
household items. Of the hygiene items provided, baby diapers were among the most common. I
was stunned when I found out 1st prescriptions was a service provided but it also made sense to
me because these people need to be treated with illness just as much as anyone else would have
to. With the feeding programs, there is a place to eat lunch and dinner every day. The rent and
utility assistance helps with people who are being evicted. Household items help with disaster
relief, etc. For example, in the summer of 2016 more than 1200 homes were impacted and most
household items were destroyed. The salvation army provided many of those services to those
impacted. There are social services hours that run from 9-11:30 Monday thru Friday or by
appointment. Social service is government service provided for the benefit of the community,
such as education, medical care and housing. In 2015 the service stats were the following, 36,226
hot meals served by the feeding program, 4076 served with emergency assistance, 805
families/individuals who were provided with Christmas meals, 628 children who received angel
tree gifts, and 508 thanksgiving meals provided. During the holidays an angel tree for Christmas
is available, basically, what this consists of is you sign up and support families with gifts. There
are these stars set up around town and once you find these stars you are given a family to whom
you support. You can give them gifts for their children, food, etc. This service really helps with
families because you make them feel like they mean something, the holidays are a time of
giving. Matthew told me that they get a lot of calls from other agencies saying they want families
to support.
For my third interview, I interviewed two people who work at the friendship room,
Nicole and Jason. When I asked them how big of a problem poverty in Mon County is they said
that poverty is a huge problem not only in Mon County but in the whole state of West Virginia.
West Virginia is one of the poorest states in the United States. Nicole mentioned that the state is a
desert for resources, and not only is mon county effected by the poverty level but the entire state
is because people come here to survive. Another issue that Jason and Nicole mentioned was that
housing is ridiculously expensive and even though you have some sort of an income, its tough to
survive, rent is super disproportionate. Jason told me even if you try to buy a home, its a real
barrier because a house that might cost 100,000 dollars across the border in PA, might cost a lot
more around here. When I asked them about poverty, Jason was straight to the point and said that
panhandling is not a problem, it is a symptom of the problem. I thought that was an interesting
way of putting it and it makes complete sense. Nicole said that much of the panhandlers arent
even homeless, she thinks people go into survival mode and need to adapt. Panhandling has more
to do with mental health than homelessness. For example, there are very hard jobs out there with
low paying wages and those jobs can be hard to get. I told Jason and Nicole how some people
might make a crazy amount from panhandling and asked them what they thought. Theyre
response was ask yourself this; where is this information coming from and would I want to
make money standing on a street corner begging? One cause of poverty, depending on a
persons mental health status, jobs are not accommodating. For example, if someone has severe
anxiety making it hard for that person to get out of the house, it can make it hard for most jobs. I
asked them what the community could do to help with people experiencing homelessness or
poverty and they said that we should build empathy and dont stay disconnected from those
people, we should go out and meet them. Now if youre talking poverty, you should give to
agencies that are alleviating the issue of poverty, donate money to agencies providing housing. If
you are living on the street Jason would encourage you to panhandle because their options are
very limited. When I asked Jason if the services here are adequate he said, absolutely not! He
told me that there are very limited agencies that provide permanent support for housing. There
are scattered site permanent support housing which is a sorted community and the renter there is
either paid for or adjusted so the person pays 30% of their income and are provided with at least
weekly professional case management in order to support that person. Another service that
should be offered is day labor agencies. This would offer basic labor and people can start to
make some money that they need. There are other states that offer this kind of service. It would
be very easy to accomplish, you do the job and get paid that day. Nicole told me that there isnt
supportive employment in the area. It would be a way to help a person with mental health issues
get a job with the employer knowing what going on with him/her. You would go onto the job site
with that person to help them learn, and slowly withdraw from the worksite with the long-term
goal of having that person work by themselves. A message to the community that Jason and
Nicole have is do one to others as one you would have them do to you.
For my fourth and final interview, I interviewed a gentleman who used to be homeless in
the Mon County area. Marty grew up in Pittsburgh, he lived a normal life, had a steady job,
loving parents, etc. Things spiraled out of control when he fell into drugs. For a long time, he
was substance abuser. He had lost his mother, and his father abandon him because of his drug
use. He didnt care and wanted to die because of how horrible the sickness was, plus he knew
tons of people with substance abuse issues and decided it was time for a change. He decided to
go to rehab in cove forge, central WV and get clean. He did 28 days there. After that he went to a
half-way house in Uniontown PA, he did 90 days there. After his rehab, he stayed at the mission
in Uniontown which is a homeless shelter. After a weeks stay, he met a guy from Morgantown
who offered him work. He worked at the waterfront hotel for a few weeks, and during this time
he was homeless. From July to December he did side jobs and worked security at Sheetz. During
this time, he was living at the Bartlett house. Soon enough, Sheetz found out that he was living at
the Bartlett house and they let him go because of that. He tried filing a law suit against them
because there was nothing in his contract that said homeless people cant work there.
Unfortunately for him, his law suit never made it to court. His opinion on the biggest cause of
poverty in the area was a combination of lack of employment and having a criminal record.
When I asked him how the community could get more involved, he said there should be some
sort of employment that is affiliated with shelters such as the Bartlett House. I asked him what
was the most difficult part about being homeless and he told me it was finding a place to eat on
the weekends. Most soup kitchens are only open Monday thru Friday. He had to take advantage
of soup kitchens. The Bartlett house every now and then will have food late at night. He told me
that the Bartlett house averages about 28 people every day and night. He does believe the
services available in Morgantown are adequate for the most part. To this day, he has been clean
for over a year, 15 month to be exact. He now works at the friendship room and is trying to save
money for an apartment. His message to the community is that not all homeless people are bad
people, and to realize that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.