WHEELING — The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia — on behalf of homeless Wheeling resident Heather Marie Corn and the House of Hagar — on Tuesday followed through with its threat of filing a civil lawsuit against the city of Wheeling over its new camping ban.

The 23-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of West Virginia is seeking an injunction barring the city’s enforcement of the camping ban — which is described as a “habitation ban” that the plaintiffs claim violates several constitutional rights. The complaint petitions the court to issue declaratory relief finding that “the habitation ban is unconstitutional” and that the “enforcement of the ban is unconstitutional.”

Additionally, the suit requests that the court “certify a class consisting of homeless individuals in Wheeling,” maintaining that the city’s actions affect not only the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, but also no less than 200 known homeless residents of Wheeling who represent a “putative class” with claims and defenses that are identical to those of Corn.

“We said we would file a lawsuit against Wheeling if officials failed to stop criminalizing homelessness in public, and now we are,” ACLU-WV Legal Director Aubrey Sparks said. “Wheeling was given time to solve this issue and chose not to — if they continue to kick the can down the road, then they will be forced to deal with this issue by a court.”

The ACLU-WV on Friday issued a letter to city officials giving them a deadline of Tuesday to address constitutional concerns the agency outlined regarding the looming enforcement of the city’s new camping ban. Two-week notices were posted on Jan. 3 at homeless encampments on public property in the city, informing occupants that the city intended to close these sites on Jan. 17. If anyone remained on the sites after 5 p.m. on that day (Wednesday), they were to be subject to removal. Any remaining property would also be subject to removal.

Kate Marshall, facilitator at the House of Hagar — one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit — said this legal action against the city was a last resort.

“House of Hagar is only filing this lawsuit after exhausting all other options,” Marshall said. “Even after over two dozen of the leading social service agencies called on the city of Wheeling to find solutions, the city didn’t respond with action. The city has not had a ‘formal process’ for camp exemptions. Despite this, we and other service providers have made documented requests for campsite exemptions to the city manager’s office, as recently as December 2023. Again, none of our requests have received a response.”

During Tuesday night’s Wheeling City Council meeting, City Manager Robert Herron said that he would consider permitting exemptions for existing homeless camps in the city on a case-by-case basis.

“Any recognized nonprofit that has any association with providing homeless services can contact my office, and we’ll discuss the specific camp and the exemption, and the rules and regulations that would apply to that specific situation,” Herron said Tuesday.

On Wednesday, officials from the ACLU-WV said they had been informed that a number of requests had since been submitted to the city administration. ACLU-WV officials also noted that as of late Wednesday afternoon, the court had not scheduled any hearing dates or issued any injunction in the case.

Herron on Wednesday declined to address the issue of the lawsuit.

“I have no comment in light of the pending litigation,” he said. Also because of the lawsuit, the city manager also declined to discuss any details as to whether or not the city planned to move forward with the closure and cleanup of any homeless encampments in the city as was expected.

Earlier in the week, Herron stressed the fact that certain camps — particularly the sprawling encampment on the wooded hillside adjacent to the Nelson Jordan Center — had been rife with criminal complaints and other problems. During Tuesday night’s city council meeting, it was indicated that enforcement of the new ban would soon be enforced at the camp around the Nelson Jordan Center because of all the issues associated with that encampment.

Before the 5 p.m. deadline Wednesday, one resident of the camp arrived in a vehicle driven by a friend. The resident — who refused to identify herself or be photographed — said she had been living in the camp for months but was staying with a friend this past week, when high temperatures during the day have not made it above the teens.

“It’s just too cold,” she said, adding that she could not stay in the existing overnight homeless shelters in town because she has pets. She said she has to make regular trips to her campsite to check on her belongings. People’s personal property had been getting stolen on a regular basis whenever they left their campsites unattended, she indicated.

There have been concerns about whether or not the city was going to make everyone there pack up and move, she said, but noted that Marshall had informed them of the lawsuit that sought to halt the city’s plan to enforce the camping ban.

The lawsuit noted that there are four local entities that provide up to 116 total beds in available shelters in Wheeling — The Life Hub, the YWCA of Wheeling, The Salvation Army and Northwood — although most of these have significant barriers for entry. Some shelters require identification or that an individual not be suffering from untreated mental illness. Others are for men only or are for women who are victims of domestic violence or human trafficking.

The Life Hub’s winter shelter is open from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. nightly through March 15. It is a low-barrier shelter, but it is only open during the winter.

Wheeling’s new camping ban allows for exemptions — particularly the establishment of a managed homeless camp with rules and regulations in place. Although the city is permitting a managed camp or camps on public properties if approved by the city administration, it has not committed to providing or operating such a camp. City leaders have been working with local outreach agencies on proposed regulations and potential locations for a managed camp, but nothing has been established so far.

The lawsuit against the city claims that the camping ban is an “unlawful restriction of freedom of speech” in violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The claim asserts that the Supreme Court has established that the First Amendment “does not end at the spoken or written word” and that “the act of living outdoors in public communicates an important message — that homelessness exists, impacts real people and causes unnecessary hardship and suffering.”

Claims in the suit also allege that the city’s conduct restricts speech in violation of the West Virginia Constitution, is “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article III Section 5 of the W.Va. Constitution, and violates other constitutional and fundamental rights.

“Unfortunately, this has been a pattern with the city,” Marshall said. “We have been sending proposals and requests to the city every year regarding more efficient ways to manage the crisis of homelessness, and these have also gone unanswered.”