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Resident challenges county focus on shelter residency data; county and Catholic Charities statistics noted
Summary
During public comment at the Monongalia County Commission’s Jan. 8 meeting, resident Lindsey Jacobs criticized the commission’s emphasis on clients’ prior addresses at the warming shelter and urged support for Catholic Charities’ operations; commissioners and staff discussed data sources and funding priorities.
Lindsey Jacobs, a resident of Morgantown’s 5th Ward, used the commission’s public-comment period on Jan. 8, 2025, to criticize efforts by some commissioners to emphasize the prior addresses of people using the county’s warming shelter. Jacobs said the intake form’s question about a person’s last physical address does not accurately indicate how long someone has lived in Morgantown and called the focus on residency “a bogus question.”
"If you ask me that question, my last address was Greenville, South Carolina, but I’ve lived in Morgantown for two years," Jacobs said, urging commissioners to stop framing residency as the central issue and to support shelter operations. She added that Catholic Charities’ work at the county’s shelters has broad community backing and that efforts to emphasize origin could risk federal funding or raise legal concerns.
County documents on the agenda included a report from Catholic Charities with December 2024 warming-shelter statistics. The report in the meeting record indicated 34 individuals were served in December; the record lists five individuals identified as from Morgantown/Monongalia County, several other named towns and states, and 17 people who provided unknown addresses. The commission’s agenda item identified the shelter report as correspondence provided for the meeting record.
In response during the meeting, commissioners and staff said the county itself does not compile the intake counts cited; the numbers were supplied by Catholic Charities. A commissioner reiterated that the county’s funding for the shelter came from city and county dollars for that program and said the commission’s stated intent in collecting residency-type data is to better understand who receives services so the county can steward taxpayer funds. The commissioner also said the county will not deny services to people seeking shelter.
Jacobs also cited a West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources survey about transient populations and noted research that migration within the state is often driven by personal connections rather than service availability. She said the residency exchange can echo anti-immigrant rhetoric and urged the commission to support Catholic Charities and local shelter providers.
The meeting record shows no change to shelter policy or funding at this meeting; commissioners said they will continue funding support while seeking data to inform programming. No formal motion regarding shelter residency or eligibility criteria was introduced at the Jan. 8 meeting.
