BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – As the homeless population continue to rises in Beckley so does vandalism. A large amount of homeless people are refusing to go to the homeless shelters, resulting in storage units being broken into across the city.
“We got storage units that someone put their long efforts in and they actually tried to revive them several months ago back in the fall, and we got folks who moved back into them and vandalize and busted the locks off of them. You can’t be in business in Beckley and own a storage unit or something like that where you are entrusting or paying to storage your items in these storage units and then to find out someone is taking everything what you paid for,” said Mayoral Candidate Jim Wills.
Executive Director of Raleigh County Community Action, Ron Cantley says there are available homeless shelters but people are choosing to live in the streets.
“Of January 22, 2020, I found three people that was homeless myself, no amount of persuasion could get them to our shelter. Our perception was that they felt like they need to be on the streets to meet the needs of their addiction. So the problems are complex,” said Cantley.
