Wheeling’s Homeless Ban: A Three Year Retrospective
Photo by Corbin T. Lanker
This fall marks three years since Wheeling’s city council passed legislation banning eating, sleeping, cooking food and storing belongings in public spaces – effectively making it illegal to be homeless. As many have observed, homelessness is perhaps more visible now in Wheeling as the ban merely displaces but does not alleviate homelessness, just as several dozen homeless service providers warned.
Mustard Seed Mountain’s staff looks back on the past several years of local anti-homeless legislation, which can be closely traced back to the national political climate and rhetoric about unhoused communities.
National politics spilled over into Wheeling as anti-homeless sentiment reached new highs in the summer of 2025, spreading across the country and into Wheeling, WV.
After years of anti-homeless campaign rhetoric, President Donald Trump issued executive order 14321 in July 2025 – calling for the end to the evidence-based ‘Housing First’ approach to solving homelessness, calling instead for cities to pass homeless bans. Pictures taken without consent capturing unhoused people at their lowest points – living in tents and struggling through active addiction – were already regularly being shared on national news and in local community groups’ social media pages. Such was the scene on Sunday, September 14, 2025. When discussing homelessness on a Fox & Friends broadcast, host Brian Kilmeade said, without correction or objection, that homeless people should receive "involuntary lethal injection" and that we should "just kill 'em."
The “homeless ban” had been introduced to the conversation nationally about a year earlier. In an official campaign video from April 2023, then presidential candidate Trump called for homeless bans across the country. Shortly thereafter the Cicero Institute introduced camping ban language that would soon be adopted by Wheeling and cities across the country. The Cicero Institute is a right wing political think tank funded by the Koch Brothers and co-founded by Joe Lonsdale, who also co-founded surveillance giant Palantir with Billionaire Peter Theil. Cities across the country have near-verbatim copies of Wheeling's homeless ban, because they were all taking Cicero’s lead.
September 2023 - City Manager Herron Calls for a Homeless Ban
Parkersburg, WV adopted West Virginia's first municipal homeless ban making it illegal to cook, eat, store belongings, or sleep in public. That same month, Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron called for a similar ban in Wheeling.
October 2023 - Wheeling Bulldozes Homeless Camp, Community Outcry
In October, eviction notices were posted at East Wheeling encampments and the threatened removal drew organized opposition from residents and service providers, and the eviction was temporarily rescinded, while the homeless ban – and opposition – continued.
November 2023 - Wheeling Passes Homeless Ban Despite Opposition
On November 7, 2023, Wheeling City Council voted 5-2 to prohibit camping, sleeping, cooking and storing belongings on public property, while authorizing the city manager to exempt a managed camp location; the ordinance took effect January 1, 2024.
December 2023 - Life Hub Shelter Opens
The Life Hub winter shelter opened on December 15 in the former First English Lutheran Church downtown Wheeling, offering expanded low-barrier overnight shelter and connections to services for adults experiencing homelessness.
January 15, 2024 - Service Providers’ Public Letter Opposing Ban Enforcement
More than two dozen local service providers and advocates asked the city to suspend homeless ban enforcement until a managed camp or enough accessible shelter beds existed, warning that unhoused residents otherwise had no lawful place to sleep or store their belongings.
January 17 2024 - Homeless Citizens, ACLU, House of Hagar Sue Wheeling
The ACLU of West Virginia filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of an unhoused Wheeling resident and House of Hagar, arguing that enforcing the ordinance when sufficient shelter was unavailable unlawfully criminalized people for having nowhere else to sleep.
January 18, 2023 - Wheeling Bulldozes Homeless Camp, Community Outcry
After months of mounting tension, and during an emergency winter weather event the City of Wheeling finally bulldozed homeless tents on Wheeling Hill in East Wheeling. Several community advocates were present to assist campers and document the process.
January 24, 2024 - Lawsuit Settles, City Exempts One Homeless Camp
The parties agreed to dismiss the case after the city designated an exempted encampment near Catholic Charities, allowing camping there while the public-camping ban remained enforceable elsewhere.
June 28, 2024 - Grants Pass SCOTUS Decision Upholds Homeless Bans
In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the U.S. Supreme Court held that public-camping bans do not violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, even when people lack shelter otherwise.
July 1, 2024 - Denny Magruder Takes Office as New Mayor of Wheeling
Mayor Denny Magruder and a new city council were sworn in on July 1, 2024, kicking off the administration that would later back closure of the exempted encampment and create a homelessness task force.
July 2024 - Deadly Flooding Hits Wheeling, Impacting Citizens Including Homeless Camp
A catastrophic flash flood struck Ohio County on June 14-15, 2025, killing nine people and damaging countless homes, roads and infrastructure, including homeless residents and the exempted camp. Food relief and recovery dominated much of the remainder of 2024.
October 21, 2025 - Council Backs Camp Closure Amid Shelter Shortage
On October 21, City Council supported the city manager's plan to end the camp's exemption on December 1. Service providers disputed the city's claim that sufficient alternatives existed, citing roughly 71 camp residents and a 52-bed Life Hub already near capacity.
November 2025 - Advocates Warn Camp Closure Will Displace About 70 People
As the deadline approached, advocates warned that closing Wheeling's only exempted camp would leave about 70 residents with no legal place to camp and insufficient low-barrier shelter capacity, while residents and city officials continued to debate safety and sanitation at the site.
December 1, 2025 - Advocates Move Campers, Staff Overnight Shelter in Catholic Charities Ballroom During Snow Storm
When the exemption ended December 1, outreach groups helped residents move belongings as temperatures fell; Catholic Charities opened emergency overnight space.
December 2, 2025 - Volunteer Arrested Moving Campers
A mutual aid volunteer was arrested the following morning on trespassing and obstruction charges while assisting remaining residents at the exempted site.
June 2026 - Mayor Magruder Announces Homeless Crack Down and Homeless Task Force
Mayor Magruder announced a Homeless Task Force led by faith leaders and paired it with a plan to increase enforcement, downtown surveillance cameras and sanitation efforts; Rabbi Joshua Lief was named chair on June 30.