Go ahead, ignite a movement

On community and resistance

If you don’t live where I live—in Morgantown, West Virginia—this might bore you.

Or maybe you’re also a burnt out rabble rouser who’s heard the same milquetoast excuses from people who never should have been elected to the positions they fill in the first place and while you listen to them “blah blah blah” their way through their official duties you feel like your skeleton might burst right through your skin because bullshit and mediocrity are apparently inflammatory (of the bodily, not provocative, variety).

You feel me?

Some background: here where I live, we are experiencing a crisis of homelessness. Wherever you live, your town probably is, too. As my friend Lesley described it (in such a straightforward way that even our elected officials could understand), “[i]t is a community problem where you lack sufficient housing for the number of people who need a place to live.” As she has also repeatedly said, it is—first and foremost—a problem for the people experiencing homelessness.

Public discourse certainly does not reflect that truth. There are whole hate groups on Facebook dedicated to photographing, shaming, and terrorizing not only our neighbors experiencing homelessness but also anyone who dares to advocate on their behalf. Apparently if one can’t or doesn’t work or struggles with substance use disorder or mental illness, they don’t deserve a safe place to live. For some of my neighbors, seeing poor people living their struggles in public is the worst possible thing™️.

There’s no sense beating around the bush about it: they want our neighbors to leave town, go to jail, or die. They’ll make exceptions here or there for the “good” homeless people—the ones who work, who are in recovery, who will stay at a shelter (even if they’re abused). They even invoke religion, saying “God helps those who help themselves.”

If I thought these people represented the overwhelming sentiment in my town, I’d pack my shit and leave. Instead, what I know to be true is this: many people—my family, friends, colleagues, people I don’t know yet—would give our neighbors the shirt off their back and punch a bitch in the jaw if they spout that fascist bullshit to our faces. It’s why I moved home. It gives me life.

Last night, more than 20 of us gathered at the Morgantown City Council wearing green and sporting stickers with slogans like “no housing, no peace” and “poverty is not criminal.” Many of us haven’t experienced homelessness, but some who spoke had. There were attorneys and WVU students, social workers and folks who do street outreach. Neighbors who hadn’t been to a council meeting before joined, as well as folks who are old hat. The room was standing room only and folks lined up to speak.¹

The effort was organized largely in response to council members’ comments at a prior meeting, saying that speakers ought to “bring them solutions.”

I’m proud to say we understood the assignment. Everyone who spoke—I think we had 16 speakers in total—offered a solution: adopt a Housing First model, help stabilize the local emergency triage shelter² and make it low-barrier, develop affordable housing, create a Department of Housing within the city, establish a day-pay community clean-up program, provide storage for people’s belongings, leave encampments alone until there is sufficient housing, consider a homeless court, and, for God’s sake, keep the fucking bathrooms open.³

Early arrivals signing up to address council

I said my piece, which you can listen⁴ to here beginning at minute 52.⁵ I asked that each of the council members name the things they had done since the prior meeting to address our dual crises (crisis being a key word here) of homelessness and lack of affordable housing. They gave us homework—how did they show up? Only two (TWO!) of seven could articulate specific actions they had taken in the past two weeks to address homelessness in Morgantown.

Let’s be real: I hate a lot of things. Is it my cutest attribute? You’re asking the wrong person. Of note, and relevant to the discussion at hand, I have zero patience for (in no particular order):

1. elected officials who say “there is no easy/one solution”;

2. elected officials who get in their feelings about “civility” and the “right” time/place for commentary or protest or discussion;

3. people in power who don’t do the work; and

4. excuses.⁶

Regarding the first—“this is hard/unfair”—no shit. It is so patronizing to say to a group of people who showed up with solutions (that’s your job, babes) to say “there is no one solution.” I don’t know if they just don’t know what else to say, but it’s beyond obvious to anyone with a brain cell that homelessness is an intractable problem.

Speaking of patronizing, one councilor actually told the crowd that we “should be grateful” for such a great council.⁷ I hissed. Look, I’ve lived here a little over two years. We have been actively in crisis since I got here, and I know these issues precede my arrival. If you’re such a “great” council, why are laypeople showing up to council meetings in droves to suggest googlable solutions that you haven’t tried? It’s a bold move to say you’re a “great” council when we have people sleeping (and dying) on the street, but hey, maybe Bill Kawecki is just a bold guy.

It was also super important for some members of council to drive home that they “can’t do this alone,” as if anyone in attendance assumes that a city with a budget of $45 million can “solve” homelessness and a housing crisis on its own. Here’s what I hear when they say these things: “we either don’t know how to or do not want to lead.” I think it’s both.⁸

Fun fact: in Morgantown, the mayor is elected by council members, not the general public. Maybe that’s how we ended up with the wrong person in that position? Alas, the clapping last night really seemed to offend her sensibilities: at one point, she threatened that clappers might be removed if they kept it up. Of utmost importance when discussing a community crisis is, of course, timekeeping.

A truth I know without knowing is that local government isn’t used to confronting organized resistance. I think this is particularly true in small towns like Morgantown. I’m not a politician, but were I the mayor here’s what I would have done: let people get their words out, their feelings out. Let the people who took hours out of their day to bring council ideas have their moment. Then, instead of criticizing the forum or “one-way conversations,” invite everyone in the room to a roundtable, and, I don’t know, be the mayor and lead? The tenor of the meeting would have changed entirely.

Instead, people left feeling condescended to (because they were) and disgusted at council’s passing the buck. Pro-tip: if you want to light a fire in the heart of an organizer, send them away feeling rejected. Go ahead, ignite a movement.

I think that’s what’s happening in Morgantown. While I left disappointed in council, I was also overflowing with pride and joy because so many people showed up! So many messages were exchanged into the wee hours of last night lamenting and raging and scheming.

A thing about me, and I hope it’s contagious: I will run myself ragged before I let people with power harm my neighbors.⁹ When our elected officials don’t appropriately respond to a community crisis, they don’t get to keep being our elected officials. We won’t be deterred by “we can’t” or “it’s hard” or “not us” or “not now.”

I texted a friend today and said I’m getting too old for this shit, but the truth is I’m always just getting started. I have boundless gratitude and love for everyone I shared air with in the crowd last night. I am exhausted, I am renewed.

1. Great overview here by the Dominion Post’s Ben Conley.

2. Our local shelter may or may not close in the coming months. They weren’t able to secure adequate funding to keep the doors open. You can read more about it here: https://www.dominionpost.com/2024/03/05/bartlett-house-pulled-the-rainbow-house-added-to-states-shelter-funding-list/

3. The is not an exhaustive list—people brought so many great ideas to council.

4. It’s the conspiracy theorist in me, but it’s interesting that the video “froze” when it did. So you can only listen, not see several speakers. Hmm.

5. You should totally listen to all of the comments. They’re so good—so powerful.

6. Les, babe, this punctuation is for you.

7. I’m told the sound of people sucking in air when he said this could be heard from the street (probably).

8. Shoutout to Councilwoman Trumble and Councilman Butcher for being the only two councilors who could cite specific, actionable things they’ve done to address our crises in the past two weeks.

9. I also probably won’t get a city grant I applied for and desperately need for the bookstore’s renovation, the same way a friend wasn’t appointed to Human Rights Commission because of her legal advocacy. There are often consequences for holding those in power to account.