CCOHWV

CCOH Project
Adam Weiss
Zack Notari
CCOHWV
Mission Statement
Research has shown that it costs far
less to provide housing and support to
homeless persons than to let them remain
homeless, which costs the community
money expended on law enforcement,
ambulance services, emergency room visits,
un-reimbursed hospital costs, substance
abuse, jail costs, and emergency shelter
expenses. These facts are the reason the
Coordinating Council on Homeless was
created. The council is formed by concerned
residents that want to help the homeless
problem in Morgantown and headed by
executive John Sonnenday. The latest
campaign is called Give Change That
Matters It aims to use $1000 to establish
an education and service voucher program.
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Breakdown
Voucher compensation in the amount of $658.25
allocated monthly in 5 increments of $131.65 over the
course of the 5-month period will fund basic services
including laundry, bus tokens, hot coffee, and
bathrooms
Sidewalk chalk awareness campaigns have been
proven to be cost effective and reaching a large target
audience, requiring only $29.75 for materials.
500 educational pamphlets (100 distributed per
month) with attached vouchers will be printed with a
total cost of $80.00 by campus printing services.
12 T-shirts with the Give Change that Matters logo
will be printed and distributed to 6 community
ambassadors and 6 Friendship Room participants,
totaling $72.00.
A banner to be hung downtown will cost $160.00.
CCOHWV 3

The program is a pilot

designed to raise interest and
education, gather data and
feedback, make necessary
improvements, and move
forward in the future with
fundraising efforts and larger
grants, such as the
Community Engagement
grant offered by WVU
Research Office Internal
Grants division. This project
is a student driven
collaboration with the
Coordinating Council on
Homelessness (CCOH)
Downtown Task Force and
students in the Graphic
Design and Communication
Studies Service-Learning
Courses
CCOHWV
Panhandling Epidemic
One of the biggest problems that the
Morgantown homeless cause is panhandling.
Essentially begging in the street, panhandling is
sometimes the only income the homeless have.
Just taking a walk down High street youll most
likely be asked for spare change. This not only
is annoying for the residents; it is harmful to
the homeless themselves. When interviewing
homeless individuals, several admitted to using
the money to buy alcohol or drugs, some were
even intoxicated during the interview. By
funding harmful addictions, the cycle of
homelessness continues. Many people are using
the money genuinely but it is impossible to tell.
The homeless also risk their own lives to unsafe
health conditions. The city provides places to
sleep and clean up but it is not adequate to be
considered healthy. Living off cheap meals
provides little nutrition. Your average homeless
person will often go long periods without
eating which takes a big toll on the body.
Another issue that panhandling raises is
loss of income. The West Virginia University
and Morgantown go hand in hand when it
comes to college students. When it comes to
recruiting the next class, a big part of that is
safety. Nervous parents want to know their son
or daughter is safe. During orientation when
parents are checking out high street they will
think twice when they encounter
panhandlers. These feelings of being unsafe
could even mean loss of income for local
businesses. If a storefront is a loitering spot,
customers wont feel as comfortable.
Panhandling creates a negative cycle.
Many of the Morgantown homeless are
mentally disabled or veterans. Due to this, they
really dont know how to do anything else but
panhandle. If it is easy to do without
interruption panhandling starts to feel more
like an occupation. The longer someone
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panhandles, the more comfortable they feel. This
leads to more of a reliance on it for income. Many
of the homeless that were interviewed said they
learn the best methods for panhandling over
time. One man said he gets the most money at
night from drunken college students. When
asked what, he does during the summers, he
simply said he eats less. Drunken students
should not be relied on by anyone. Panhandling
cycles to an unstable dependence in the long run.
Over the years there has been several
solutions proposed to fix the Morgantown
panhandling problem. These solutions however,
raise moral and ethical dilemmas. One idea that
many other cities do is move the homeless
shelter to a less important area. Most
panhandlers tend to hang closely to shelters. In
Morgantown, there are several homeless shelters
and other homeless programs close to high
street. By moving the primary shelters, there
would be less of a concentration in Morgantown.
This unfortunately raises issues like
transportation and cost of moving. The CCOH is
working with city leaders and main street
Morgantown to reduce panhandling and improve
the downtown experience.
Facts
-1 out of every 4 panhandlers in the United
States has served in the military at some point in
time.
-44% of panhandlers admit using part of their
daily take on drugs or alcohol at least once per
week.
-82% of panhandlers are homeless
-The average person on the streets who is asking
for assistance has been panhandling for 4.6 years
-A clear majority of panhandlers have at least
one mental illness that may or may not have
been clinically diagnosed
brandongaille.com/21-amazing-panhandling-statistics/
CCOHWV 5

There have been other solutions to panhandling that have been used by other cities across
America that have proven to be very effective. I believe that implementing some of these solutions
in Morgantown could have a positive impact on the amount of panhandling we see now. In
Albuquerque, they had a van that would come around and offer a certain amount of working
positions to homeless people across the city. This entailed a livable wage for the day and included
lunch, transportation for these people was also provided. This was a very popular solution both
with the homeless and the community. It benefits both sides because the homeless people are
offered an alternate source of income to panhandling and the city gets cleaned up at the same time.
It was so popular with the homeless in fact that they had people begging to add another van because
the work positions were being filled too quickly. A solution like this is something that could work
great for some of the homeless population in Morgantown. While it seems a lot of the older
homeless people in town are not very motivated to work, a lot of the younger ones I see with signs
are actively looking for some sort of income and this is the population it would work great with.
Another city in New Haven Connecticut implemented parking style meters but the money
donated to these meters goes to the homeless community. This is a positive solution to panhandling
because it cuts down on the ability of homeless people to use panhandled money for drugs and
alcohol. While this doesnt eliminate the problem of panhandling it does eliminate the group of
people who unproductively use the money that they are given throughout the day and steers that
money back into services for people who need them. The money from these meters is donated to
programs that help homeless people with basic needs such as food and hygiene. Again, this is not a
complete solution but it does however ensure that money you may give is going to help a homeless
person in other ways than satisfying their addiction.
Morgantown is a city that has a homeless population of 77 as of January 2016. Many of these
people panhandle in hopes of raising a little extra money to use for themselves. Unfortunately, many
of these people suffer from alcohol or drug addiction and misuse the money that they can obtain.
Some use the money for food and clothing but a lot use it for alcohol and drugs. A campaign such as
give change that matters effectively helps the homeless without contributing to their addiction.
Vouchers are provided to these people for necessities like showers, bus rides, haircuts, etc. By
donating to this campaign, you can help the homeless while knowing your money is being put to
good use in improving the quality of someone else's life even if it's only a little bit. These people will
not only benefit from the vouchers but it may help them to reduce their drug and alcohol habits if
they are not able to get money to buy it. By reducing the number of homeless people in Morgantown
over the years the CCOH has proven itself to be reliable and this campaign Is a great way to help the
homeless.
While Morgantown already has, a meter designated to helping the homeless I believe the
implementation of more meters in higher populated areas could increase the effectiveness of this
solution. Most people in Morgantown are not even aware of the fact that these meters exist and I
think putting them in more prominent areas of town will increase the amount of funds these meters
see. I also believe that the implementation of the van program I spoke about above would prove to
be a very lucrative option to panhandling for many of Morgantowns homeless residents. Not only
that but it also provides an easy solution to keeping the streets of Morgantown looking clean and
well kept. Lastly providing an online option to donate to the homeless people of Morgantown would
provide an additional source of income for programs and could stretch far wider than the city limits.
The implementation of the website on social media platforms would cause an increase of awareness
and possibly donations for homeless people.
CCOHWV
One of the best groups of people to involve
in helping the homeless people with panhandling is
the WVU athletic community and WVU fans. This
group of people is widespread throughout the
campus, the state, and the country and moves the
group of people who can help not only out of the
city but out of the state as well. With the massive
number of people that attend WVU games and the
equal amount or more that watch at home, WVU
sports is a great platform to gain support for
homelessness.
One great option for raising funds for
programs to help the homeless is doing a 50/50
raffle at some of the home WVU football games. The
way that a 50/50 raffle works is that money is
collected voluntarily from fans throughout the
stadium and their names are placed in a drawing for
the chance to win half of all the money collected.
The other half of the money collected would go to a
certain cause in this case homelessness. People are
more enticed to donate if they think that it can
benefit them in some way and in the case of the
50/50 raffle it has the potential to provide a large
monetary benefit. This is something that is
regularly done but rarely for the benefit of
homelessness. The money earned from this raffle
could go towards implementing some of the
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programs that we have discussed above and cut
down on the panhandling problem. Half of the
money raised would be donated to the give change
that matters campaign to provide more vouchers
for homeless people. This provides the campaign
with more funds from mountaineer fans which
allows homeless people to benefit more from these
services. Also, this increase in funding would allow
for more options to raise awareness. More chalk
and more banners can be purchased and hung in
different prominent areas of town.
Another option for raising money through
WVU football would be to give a certain percentage
discount on football tickets if you donate to a
program in Morgantown that supports homeless
people and especially cutting down on
panhandling. WVU is a very beloved football team
throughout the state and even the country. People
come from all over to watch WVU play and people
also love to save money. By offering a 10%
discount on football tickets for donations to
programs that help homeless people these
programs will see an influx of money because
people again see a reward for their donation. This
can be implemented well with the voucher
program that the give change that matters
campaign uses. By working with WVU athletics
give change that matters could see a large increase
in funding if WVU athletics would work with them
to provide discounted tickets to those who donate
to the campaign.
Simple ways to turn WVU sports programs
into Platforms for social issues such as
homelessness are often overlooked. For instance, if
you have ever been to a WVU basketball game then
you have seen the Kroger half time shot Where a
gift card is given to a random student chosen from
the audience if they can complete a certain
basketball related task. Instead of the student
being the beneficiary of this reward why not have
it be in desperate need such as a homeless person
or better yet an organization that provides services
for the homeless. This could contribute to the
decrease in panhandling because if the
organizations that help homeless people are
receiving the benefits from these events then they
can provide more and better quality service for
these people that reduces their need to beg for
money.
CCOHWV 7

We Are All Mountaineers

Why should anyone in the WVU community care about the homeless
people you may ask? Well there are plenty of reasons for people to care
about these unfortunate others who are down on their luck. One reason for
this is that WVU goes further than just the students who go to this school.
The WVU community encompasses all of Morgantown and that includes
people that are not as well off such as the homeless people. You don't just
kick someone to the curb and ignore him or her because they have less than
you or annoy you. You rally and find a solution to help because they are apart
of your community.
After speaking with many of my classmates about their interviews
with homeless people it seems like a lot of them come off as rude sometimes
and that turns people off to wanting to help them. The other large problem
people have with giving money to homeless is that it is directly contributing
to that person's addiction. The solutions that we have provided above
directly combats excuses for helping the homeless and allows people to feel
compassion more easily knowing their money isnt going to drugs and
alcohol. By directly donating to meters or 50/50 raffles people are ensured
their money is going to good use and in turn are more likely to donate again
or in larger quantities. Another way besides the meters would be donating
directly to the give change that matters campaign. This program uses
vouchers to provide basic services for the homeless and ensures your
donation is being used efficiently and properly.
Finally, one of the reasons people care the most about donation is that
they can see a benefit for themselves. In solutions to raise money for
stopping panhandling such as the 50/50 raffle and the discount on tickets
people have the chance to help someone else while also gaining self-
gratification, whether it be in the form of a discount or chance to win money.
Generally, people are somewhat selfish and the opportunity for them to gain
reward for helping others dramatically increases the chances that they are
willing to donate.
Many different people are going to view homelessness in different
lights. Mountaineer athletics is a great opportunity to reach out on several
different platforms and pull at the heartstrings of fans by showing that the
WVU athletic programs sincerely care. This will entice people to donate too
in efforts of gaining monetary reward and fitting in with the new narrative
the WVU athletics would provide which in this case is helping the homeless.
The CCOH is the most organized way of fighting homelessness in
Morgantown. In the coming years, the CCOH will expand and consider new
methods of funding. Mountaineers are a great group to get behind because
the culture is very caring and supportive. Even if a homeless person didnt
attend the university, they are equals since they walk the same streets. We
are all navigating these mountains together and we are all mountaineers!
Lorem Ipsum

The Coordinating Council On Homelessness

235 High Street, Suite 200, Morgantown, 26505

Email: ccohwv@gmail.com

Phone: 412 419 6116