老司机直播

Over the past seven months, taxpayers in Wheeling have spent $87,846.11 to clean up sites around town that had been used as homeless encampments. That’s more than the majority of the city’s households earn in an average year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s nearly on par with what most city department heads earn in a year.

The figure released just a few days ago by city administrators only included clean-ups from September through April. That’s the cost of materials and manpower to make safe sites along Heritage Trail, on Wheeling Island, in East Wheeling near the Nelson Jordan Center, King’s Daughters Child Care Center, the Wheeling Central Gymnasium and in Fulton.

Of course, with the passage of a camping ban on public property by City Council and the establishment of a managed camp across the creek from the Tunnel Green complex, city taxpayers should not incur additional costs for camp-site clean-up. But along with the $100,000 in funding provided recently to The Life Hub and the $1 million to $2 million city leaders have previously noted had been spent on dealing with the homeless, it’s clear the costs quickly add up.

Let’s be clear: there’s absolutely no reason why city taxpayers, from this point forward, should have to solely foot the bill to help manage the city’s homeless population. There are a number of social service agencies in our community that should be stepping forward to take on this responsibility. Asking the tax-paying public to shoulder the burden moving forward, with a law on the books that prohibits camping on public property, will only lead to additional issues.