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I can remember back in 2005 when I was the health officer for the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department. We were debating changing the clean indoor air act to include bars, restaurants and gaming facilities. The overwhelming public health consensus was that secondhand smoke was harmful to your health.
The 17th Surgeon General, Richard Carmona, had just come out with the official policy stating the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, until then we didn't realize how harmful it was. We even thought that having separate sections in a restaurant would help. Luckily we now have a generation of our youth who have never been asked "smoking or non-smoking section."
But even with all the scientific data supporting that we should have non-smoking in all indoor places, and that it doesn't harm the economics of the businesses, our own City Council and County Commission opposed this overwhelming scientific data that secondhand smoke was harmful. Luckily, we had a group of board of health members who voted to make Wheeling one of the first major cities in West Virginia smoke free, although the exemption for gaming was upheld, the board did what it could at that time.
So that brings us to our current situation -- the City Council ordinance that bans camping on public property. Our City Council has been looking at this issue very closely and I commend them for this, but unfortunately, I feel they have been given bad advice on how to handle this crisis.
Banning camping on public property is not the solution to our homeless issue as evidenced by the overwhelming scientific data that supports this ordinance is harmful. This is demonstrated by the American Public Health Association, APHA, caucus on homelessness, coming out with a policy statement that it is harmful to "sweep" (forcibly removing the camps). In this policy it goes over the harm that it does, and the references that back it up. This is similar to all the scientific data that was shown about the harmfulness of secondhand smoke.
This just goes to show the huge gap between scientific consensus and the realities of municipal policy making in our cities.
So what do we do?
First, I would suggest that we remove the ordinance. It's not the solution.
Two, set up a managed camp -- preferably two -- and have the city be in charge of it, but hopefully using the money it has been allotted to the municipalities from the West Virginia opioid settlement funds. Currently, many of our homeless are victims of addiction and addiction is an illness and we should not treat them as criminals. It is also unfair to the nonprofit groups that serve the homeless that they be responsible for managing these camps since they are already strapped with short funding and staff and I don't see it as their duty. Believe me they are definitely involved but not with assuming responsibility of a managed camp.
Our city is trying to manage visible homelessness by forcibly, sweeping the tents and makeshift shelters of people who at this point don't have access to indoor housing.
So of the 108,000 cities in the U.S., maybe there is a reason why only 65 are currently criminalizing and displacing encampments, despite court rulings and restrictive displacement policies, and evidence that the health and well-being of those homeless are harmed by such displacement.
It also impairs access to safe, stable housing or shelter, and presents only a temporary cosmetic fix. There are many alternatives to violently uprooting encampments.
We are also concerned about the residents who live near these camps. I personally would not want to be chased down the walking trail with someone with a machete or be assaulted, but removing the camps doesn't prevent this behavior. This is criminal, and should be dealt with as such.
So in conclusion, as a physician who has been on the street and in camps and under the bridges for 18 years, I totally believe that this ordinance is wrong and it will make things worse. Again, I please ask the City Council rescind this ordinance and continue to work with The Life Hub on getting the beds that would be open all day with access to the other services that are available that can assist them in getting housed. Next would be getting two managed camps managed by the city, as described above.
And if we really want to think outside the box, start thinking of safe injection sites -- that's where the addicted person can go to safely inject and not worry about overdose, then live another day to hopefully get into rehab.
We shouldn't be treating drug addicts as criminals, in New York City and Rhode Island they do have safe injection sites which keep these people alive so they can still have a chance of getting back to a normal life through adequate rehabilitation.
Remember, they are all human beings maybe a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a friend. They deserve our compassion and help. Don't criminalize our homeless.
So please let us work together in trying to understand this huge problem. Let's have Wheeling be a leader and a model for other cities to follow using scientific data to solve this problem!
Dr. William C. Mercer of Wheeling is a member of the American Public Health Association's caucus for homelessness and the former public health officer in Ohio County. He also serves the medical needs of the area's homeless through Project HOPE.