With the convening of Wheeling’s new clergy-led Homeless Taskforce, we reflect on Wheeling’s long and active tradition of faith-based accompaniment with our homeless neighbors. It gives us hope that the City is now adopting this time-tested approach.

Located on Chapline Street in Wheeling's Centre Market is a small 10 foot by 20 foot photography studio. It is the “home base” of Melody Rae Petras’ artistic passion – specifically analog photography. Melody works with film, VHS, and tintypes.

Hey you! Did you know that you can get 50% off your produce and grocery items when you pay with SNAP at the Public Market, Wheeling’s premier nonprofit grocery store downtown? 

The Public Market, a project of Grow Ohio Valley, partners with local and regional farmers to bring fresh produce, eggs, meat, and dairy products to Wheeling. The Market receives funding through the WV Food and Farm Coalition as well as a private donor for their SNAP Stretch program, which allows them to offer extensive discounts for SNAP/EBT customers on a wide variety of grocery items and produce. 

When I first moved to Warwood, no one knocked on my door.

That's not an indictment of Warwood. I've lived in many places in my adult life, and there's rarely been more than a wave from our porches, a smile in passing, and a quick retreat to our own private lives. But I moved to Wheeling for a sense of community, so I’d be damned if I didn’t cultivate that in my own little piece of the city.

In June, Mayor Denny Magruder announced the formation of a new taskforce to address the issue of homelessness in Wheeling. Magruder said the taskforce will be “guided by local clerics” and is intended to “balance compassion with accountability.” At the time of publication, the council has released little information about the makeup and specifics of the group aside from its chair – Rabbi Joshua Lief of Temple Shalom. As Wheeling’s ‘Homeless Taskforce’ takes shape, Mustard Seed Mountain reflects on the last decade of advocacy for our homeless neighbors.

As the sun rises over Ohio County, J. Arnold steps out her front door overlooking the southern portion of Warwood, a Wheeling neighborhood two miles north of the city’s urban core. It’s a quiet neighborhood, all things considered. Arnold can see the mighty Ohio River with the town of Martins Ferry, Ohio, to the west. Through her neighbor’s yards, she can see a shopping complex close enough to hear conversations held in the parking lot. South of the former Save-a-Lot, Arnold sees the historic Centre Foundry and its gray-blue walls. 

When Arnold first bought her home, Centre Foundry was still an operating steel mill – the same steel mill that lasted some 183 years since its founding before West Virginia was even a state. In 2023, the foundry quieted as its furnaces ran cold, parking lots emptied, jobs evaporated, and its doors closed for one final time. Now, a new business is preparing to move in; and it’s a neighbor Arnold, and other Warwood residents, are concerned about. 

Jaclyn Gillispie and Amy Davis, both 43, share a lot of similarities. Together, they realized their potential and began climbing up from the darkest points of their lives hand in hand.

For a woman, life on the streets offers no glamor or beauty. Surviving outside amongst the elements takes grit, strength, and a special kind of resilient spirit that many of the unhoused women in Wheeling possess.