New Morgantown shelter aims to create space where people can thrive
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — Dozens of community members around the Morgantown area came out on Thursday to visit the open house of the new Grace Shelter located within Hazel's House of Hope.
The Grace Shelter has been open for around a month and is a year-round, 24/7, low-barrier shelter that has bedding as well as shower and laundry facilities for people experiencing homelessness across the state. The shelter opened its doors around the same time Morgantown's camping ban took effect.
According to a point-in-time survey conducted by the West Virginia Department of Human Services , there were 1,416 homeless people in the state in January 2023, an increase of about three percent from 2022.
"There's been a lot of pressure on cities across West Virginia to do something about homelessness. And some of them are just putting something like a camping ban in place in an effort to solve that problem but that doesn't really help to connect anybody to resources. What Morgantown and Monongalia County Commission have done is to try and find a way to also provide those supports and Grace Shelter here with Catholic Charities is one of those," Catholic Charities WV CEO Mark Phillips said.
Shelter Director Jessica Thompson said that the staff has made changes to the shelter. "The place was pretty sterile before, which has its pros and cons to it. But we really wanted to liven the place up and bring in lots of colors and events and we completely redid our day room so people can actually sit down and enjoy, have a conversation, have their cup of coffee in the morning and get ready for their day."
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Thompson added that she also implemented a service calendar, where different services across the area are set to visit the shelter and provide information to clients as well as help out with things like housing forms.
Philipps explained that this is a low-barrier shelter, which means that they try to meet their clients where they are "regardless of whatever barriers they might have."
"They might be coming to us with a history of addiction, we are not making judgments about that. What we don't allow individuals to use, and we don't want to see, paraphernalia or weapons in this space. We want to make sure that this can be a step back on to recovery for somebody," said Phillips.
There are 28 beds in total, seven for women, and 21 for men. Shelter staff said there are more shelters in the area focused on serving just women, and according to the study conducted by the DOHS, "most individuals who were experiencing literal homelessness self-reported their gender as male 58%."
If beds are full or the shelter is not able to provide the care the person needs, the shelter said it has connections with other shelters or organizations. It also said that it's working on getting funding to provide transportation for people, but in the meantime, it gives people Mountain Line vouchers to ride the bus.
To contact the shelter, you can call 681-867-1002, or visit the shelter's website here .
