About two months after Tent City was dismantled, former residents John Wilson and Vallary Litton are back to sleeping in a tent.
While thousands of dollars has been donated to help the couple and other Tent City residents, most of the former residents aren't currently benefiting from those donations.
Charleston Mayor Danny Jones ordered the homeless encampment, which was located along the Elk River near the Spring Street Bridge, shut down on Jan. 19. At the time, estimates on the number of people who lived there ranged from 15-30.
Andy Palmer, who started a GoFundMe to put the residents in a house, arranged for about 10 of the people to stay in a hotel room for a short time after, then rented a house in South Charleston he's calling the "House of Hope."
Palmer said this week that just four people were still living in the house. He says three of them are former Tent City residents, while Wilson says only one of them is.
"We call it the house of hell," Wilson said.
Palmer says they've scattered different ways. None of the former Tent City residents Palmer has assisted have been placed in stable, subsidized housing.
As for Wilson and Litton, stories differ on why the two left the house.
Several people involved with the house, who called the newspaper after a reporter called Palmer, said they were drinking and fighting. Wilson admitted to at least one fight with another man, but says the two couldn't deal well with feeling as if their behavior was being controlled.
"He's hurt us more than Danny Jones did," Wilson said.
But regardless of the reasons, Litton and Wilson left the house with two backpacks, the same way they left Tent City.
They don't think it's fair that while few Tent City residents remain at the House of Hope, Palmer continues to raise funds for the house using the name "Tent City."
A book was written about the Tent City residents, too. The front cover features a picture of some of them. According to the website, 60 percent of the book's proceeds go to House of Hope.
"To me that's not Tent City," Wilson said. "That's something else different, but he's using Tent City's name."
Palmer said the $4,800 donated through GoFundMe and the benefit money is also going toward the House of Hope, and other homeless people who need to live there in the future.
Litton and Wilson are skeptical.
"He is using us," Litton said.
Litton and Wilson only recently found out about Palmer's lengthy criminal history. He has pleaded guilty to battery, conning a fiancee into buying him a trailer, and breaking and entering, according to previous Gazette reports. Court records show he has also faced numerous other charges.
"He's got a back story longer than this book that we have out," Wilson said.
Thomas Fuhr, though, another former Tent City resident, said he has been helped. He was living at House of Hope until recently checking into drug treatment, and he thanks Palmer.
"The House of Hope saved my life," he said. "Everybody seen something in me that I didn't see in myself until it was brought to my attention."
Palmer says that the GoFundMe money did benefit some of the Tent City residents, because it went to rent on the house so far. But now, most of the Tent City people are on their own.
He said his church, the Lighthouse Worship Center, is handling the money, and his pastor, Richard Young, confirmed that.
"I'm Andy Palmer," Palmer said. "I don't want anything to do with the money. I have a history."
Palmer said that people who have left didn't want to follow rules of the household, including no drinking, no drugs, no threats and no violence.
"In society, you have to have rules," he said. Palmer was charged with battery last month.
People who work with the homeless for a living weren't surprised that Tent City residents are back to sleeping outside.
Not long after Tent City was dismantled, Ellen Allen, the executive director of Covenant House, 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 at the time.
This week, Allen said efforts may have been well-intentioned, but not well-informed.
"Quite frankly, getting someone into housing is the surest way to end homelessness," she said. "However, efforts must go much deeper. How does a group of people live together in community? Can 15 people live co-ed in a three bedroom house without problems arising? Of course not. How is one supported when working through long-term trauma, and co-occurring mental health and substance abuse issues?"
Advocates for the homeless in the area have said those who want to help should try to work within the existing system.
George Lively, an outreach specialist with Prestera, and Allen both noted that it's essential for the person working with the homeless population to have expertise in the field.
"He's not a community mental health professional," Lively said, speaking of Palmer. "He's not a psychiatric social worker. He's just a scammer and I'm very, very concerned that he's going to continue it."
The current system isn't without its own issues, though. In 2015, a count found 432 people living unsheltered in West Virginia.
Wilson says he has recently been in touch with Prestera. As he sat on the porch of the Hissom Tabernacle Church picking up food donations Tuesday, he said he's working on getting proof of identification that the government requires.
He was standing just across the street from the former Tent City,
"if you're not dying - if you're not crippled," he said, "then you won't get a house."
Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, 304-348-5163 or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.