Previously homeless men share their stories

July 20 – MORGANTOWN – People can and do go beyond homelessness.

Daniel Lightner did.

He was homeless for about five years.

Then he ended up in Morgantown, staying at the Bartlett House shelter with his girlfriend and dog.

“This is the first time we have stayed in a shelter. [Pennsylvania ], you can’t go to a shelter where there are men and women and you can bring your dog,” he recently told the Morgantown City Council. “It was very difficult to be homeless in Pa. que. It dries you out of getting better.”

Lightner’s comments before the council supported Councilwoman Louise Michael’s request that the city explore expanding the city’s sleeping and camping ban — which currently only applies to city parks — to include residential properties, city streets, alleys and sidewalks.

In other words, in the city center.

“It’s starting to look a lot like Kensington in certain spots downtown — needles, homeless camps, nothing changing,” Lightner said, comparing Morgantown to Philadelphia’s infamous drug-saturated neighborhood.

Lightner said he has been working with the local homeless community for a little over a year.

“A friend from California came here because I thought I could help him get a house. He did well in the first month, then he met the people here who live on the street.

“It could be good for everyone, but it’s a great place to be homeless here with the benefits. If you want to add water fountains, bathrooms and —-, there’s no need to go to a shelter because everything you need will be right on the street in the center of town.”

He said allowing people to gather in camps may offer a sense of protection, but it doesn’t help anyone move forward.

“Their lives are still on pause,” he said. “They’re just surviving there.”

Like Lightner, Jason Gillespie turned to the Bartlett House shelter.

That was in 2007.

“I had addiction and alcohol issues,” he said. “I had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. I was lost.”

Gillespie said he considers his experience proof of the idea that people struggling with addiction and having nowhere to lie down can turn things around with help.

He said additional laws are not the answer.

“The misery that these people experience out there is difficult. They really have no choice whether to use, drink or steal because there is no option for them,” he said. “If we don’t present those options to them, it’s a moot point to try to kick them out of there, go to prison and then come right back and do the same things.”

Currently, Gillespie continued, there are no real alternatives that people can turn to.

“I was also there meeting these people,” he said. “Just a little compassion from everyone goes a long way. Just a little.”