July 20—MORGANTOWN — People can and will leave homelessness behind.

That’s what Daniel Lightner did.

He was homeless for about five years.

He eventually ended up in Morgantown, where he stayed at the Bartlett House shelter with his girlfriend and their dog.

“It’s the first time we’ve been in a shelter. In (Pennsylvania) you can’t go to a shelter where it’s male and female and you can bring your dog,” he recently told the Morgantown City Council. “It was really hard being homeless in Pennsylvania. There were no tents or camps or anything. It dehydrates you to get better.”

In his address to the council, Lightner supported Councilmember Louise Michael’s request for the city to explore expanding the ban on sleeping and camping, which currently only applies to city parks, to include residential properties, streets, alleys and sidewalks.

In other words: in the city center.

“It’s starting to look more and more like Kensington in parts of downtown: needles, homeless camps, nothing changes,” said Lightner, who compared Morgantown to Philadelphia’s notorious drug district.

Lightner says he has been working with the local homeless community for more than a year.

“I had a friend from California who came here because I thought I could help him find a house. He did well for the first month, then he met the people here who live on the streets. It’s hard,” he said.

“It could be good for everyone, but it’s a great place to be homeless with the benefits. If you want to add water fountains, toilets and s—-, you don’t have to go to a shelter because everything you need is on the streets in the city center.”

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

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

Like Lightner, Jason Gillespie ended up in the Bartlett House shelter.

That was in 2007.

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

Gillespie said he sees his experience as a testament to the idea that people struggling with addiction who can’t find peace anywhere can, with help, turn their lives around.

He said additional laws are not the solution.

“The misery that those people experience there is hard. They don’t really have a choice whether they’re going to use, drink or steal because there’s no option for them,” he said. “If we don’t give them those options, it’s pointless to kick them out and send them to jail and then come right back and do the same thing.”

Gillespie continues that there are currently no real alternatives for people to turn to.

“I’ve been there to meet these people,” he said. “A little compassion from everyone goes a long way. A little bit.”