The majority of Tent City residents, if not all, were able to stay warm over the weekend.
About 11 of them stayed at the Motel 6 in Kanawha City, thanks to donations, according to Stacy Jones, a volunteer who worked with Tent City residents before and after the homeless encampment was dismantled.
Another one or two of them stayed at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, in Charleston, which opened its doors to the homeless last weekend, according to Darick Biondi, pastor of the Glasgow United Methodist Church, which assisted. About 20 homeless people, not from Tent City, arrived Friday.
But the former Tent City residents have no idea where they'll go next, and what they'll do when the money dries up, according to Jones.
"They're pretty scared right now," she said.
While some people have tried to help Tent City residents by donating supplies, money for hotel rooms and contributions to an online fundraising campaign (that says it is meant to buy them a $7,000 to $10,000 home), those who work with the homeless in the area are asking people to consider supporting long-term solutions, instead, as well as giving the gift of time.
Advocates for the homeless say that, while the shelters in Charleston do have rules for living there, the shelters were prepared to house all the Tent City residents after Mayor Danny Jones ordered on Jan. 19 that the encampment, located along the Elk River by the Spring Street Bridge, be dismantled. Jones said he made the decision under pressure from Waste Management, the property owner.
"I took no pleasure in what we did, but I'm glad it's behind us," Jones said late last week. "It's the right thing to do. If we would have had one case of hypothermia, and somebody would have died, who would have been blamed? The city of Charleston."
People who work with the homeless in Charleston urged those who want to help to donate to an agency or reach out to the homeless and encourage them to seek help at one of the agencies in Charleston. They stressed the need for long-term solutions, versus short-term, "feel-good" campaigns.
Agencies like Covenant House have case workers who can help the homeless navigate the process of finding housing.
"We may not be able to meet every need but, more often than not, when someone walks out our door, they walk out of our door with an avenue or direction of where they're going to go," said Briana Martin, housing and outreach coordinator for Covenant House. "They walked in completely lost."
They can also increase the likelihood that clients stay housed by following up and encouraging clients to keep up with mental health and addiction treatment and stay on top of their finances, according to Traci Strickland, director of homeless programs for Prestera.
"We're looking at long-term stability," she said.
Strickland expressed concern that, with all the anger over the displaced 15 to 20 Tent City residents, Charleston has forgotten about the 300 or so other people staying in local homeless shelters.
"Our homeless problem is bigger than Tent City," she said.
Strickland said that while the dismantling of Tent City has brought the issue of homelessness to the forefront, there is no need to start from scratch. She described a friend recently suggesting a homelessness summit.
"I'm like, we don't need one more meeting," she said. "We have groups doing this."
Instead, she advocates for working with nonprofit organizations.
"Ask nonprofits what they need," she said.
Surrounded last week by several of her staff members, Ellen Allen, executive director of Covenant House, and her employees also advocated for working within the already existing infrastructure to address homelessness in the city.
"When people ask what they can do to help, I don't think taking them firewood and food," Allen said. "I think reaching out to them and saying these are the resources available. You can't stay here indefinitely. Let's start the process of finding you at least emergency shelter and then stabilization of housing. That is what's going to help people the most. I know it makes us feel good to do these other things. It's easier, and you can do it when you feel like it. The people around this table, they do it every day."
Allen discouraged online fundraising efforts.
"It will help create more tent cities and set up our most vulnerable populations for repeated episodes of displacement," she said.
Those who want to help also can volunteer to count the homeless in the city during the Point in Time Count, an annual survey during which volunteers comb the streets and shelters to determine the number of homeless residents. The count is a Housing and Urban Development requirement and affects how much funding the city receives to address homelessness.
The count was scheduled for today and Wednesday in Charleston but has been postponed, tentatively for Thursday and Friday, because of the weather. The Kanawha Valley Collective, a network of groups that work to reduce homelessness in the area, has submitted a request to postpone it even longer, until after Feb. 1. For more information, email kanawhavalleycollective @yahoo.com.
Those who want to help in other communities in West Virginia should call Rachel Coen or Amanda Sisson, at the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness, at 304-842-9522.
Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.