(Publisher's Note: As the members of Wheeling's new Homeless Task Force begin working together today, long-time East Wheeling resident Erik Marple has composed this Open Letter to the group's chair, Rabbi Joshua Lief. Below Mr. Marple's Letter, please find the City's press release that explains the creation of the Task Force and its goals, according to Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder.) Subject: Strategic Framework and Mental Health Infrastructure Recommendations Dear Rabbi Lief and Members of the Task Force: First, thank you for your willingness to lead our community through one of its most complex challenges. The creation of this Task Force, blending faith leaders, business owners, public safety personnel, and healthcare professionals, represents a vital opportunity to move past historical divisions and build an accountable, results-driven system for Wheeling. While millions of dollars in federal, state, and local grants flow into our region annually, our unhoused population continues to rise, and our emergency resources remain critically strained. Local data indicates that 60% to 70% of Wheeling's unhoused population battles severe mental illness. Ever since the closure of Ohio Valley Medical Center (OVMC), which abruptly stripped 30 adult acute care beds from the Hillcrest facility and 26 youth beds from the Byrd Center, our city has lacked the inpatient infrastructure necessary to stabilize individuals in crisis. To reverse this trend, we must shift our strategy away from simply funding isolated, open-ended programs and pivot toward structural consolidation, strict accountability, and aggressive local mental health capacity expansion. I formally request that the Task Force adopt and champion the following comprehensive strategies to fundamentally change the current situation: 1: System Accountability & Structural Consolidation * Mandate a "Shared-Data For Funding" Policy: The city must tie all future municipal and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding directly to agency participation in the West Virginia Statewide Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). Agencies that refuse to log intakes, bed availability, and long-term placement outcomes should have their funds redirected to organizations that do. This will eliminate duplicate services, track client progress in real time, and ensure taxpayer dollars yield measurable housing results. While I am aware that we have HMIS and CoC currently in place. However, I am also sure that a lot of people are not accounted for which also serves as a danger to our community regarding such indivuals with active warrants or registered sex offenders. * Accelerate Centralized Service Hubs: We must move away from a fragmented model where individuals must bounce between twelve different locations for food, clothing, and shelter. I urge the Task Force to fully support the physical consolidation of emergency services into centralized facilities. By co-locating mental health counselors, substance use specialists, and housing navigators directly inside one shelter, we ensure that immediate care is paired with an immediate exit strategy from homelessness. Sometimes the best solution is a matter of quality over quantity. * Establish Regional Inflow and Resource-Sharing Agreements: Wheeling, especially East Wheeling and Downtown, acts as a regional magnet, absorbing unhoused individuals from surrounding Northern Panhandle and Ohio counties that lack sufficient infrastructure. The Task Force must negotiate data and cost-sharing agreements with neighboring municipal leaders. If individuals are migrating into our city due to service gaps elsewhere, neighboring counties should help subsidize these regional operations or more effectively expand their own diversion programs. * Develop Supervised Transitionary Group Housing: Moving directly from a street encampment to independent apartment living is often an impossible hurdle for chronically unhoused individuals. The Task Force should advocate for the creation of supervised group homes or micro-communities. This model maintains a vital sense of community while providing a safe, sanitary, and staffed environment where individuals can stabilize and build the skills necessary for long-term independent living. * Balance Public Safety Enforcement with Dignified Exit Pathways: Maintaining the rule of law and public sanitation in our downtown spaces is essential for our local businesses and residents. However, clearing encampments without a destination simply rotates the problem. Street outreach teams must work in lockstep with law enforcement. When public spaces are cleared, individuals must be handed directly to a designated housing navigator who has an available emergency, transitional, or crisis stabilization bed waiting for them. That takes us to the most important thing that we must do. Find a way to create more mental health service beds not just shelter beds. 2: Rebuilding Wheeling's Mental Health Infrastructure To sustain these housing efforts, we must aggressively work to restore the acute inpatient and outpatient capacity lost when Hillcrest shut down. I urge the Task Force to pursue three specific avenues to bring dedicated adult behavioral health facilities back to Wheeling: * Leverage the WVU Medicine Partnership: Given WVU Medicine's massive regional footprint and ongoing redevelopment projects on the old OVMC lot, the Task Force should actively lobby their leadership to expand adult behavioral health services locally. We need a dedicated adult psychiatric ward or an integrated medical-psychiatric emergency unit attached to their primary local infrastructure to capture acute crises. * Expand Local Crisis Stabilization Units (CSUs): Instead of waiting years to build a massive psychiatric hospital from scratch, the city should look to expand what already works. Northwood Health Systems operates a vital Crisis Stabilization Unit on Wood Street. The Task Force should advocate for state grants and municipal matching funds to significantly expand Northwood's bed capacity, transforming it into a 24/7 step-down center tied directly to homeless outreach navigators. * Replicate the "Orchard Park" Re-use Blueprint for Adults: In 2023, stakeholders successfully repurposed the vacant Byrd Center building to open Orchard Park Hospital, bringing 30 acute psychiatric beds to the area for children and adolescents. The Task Force should deploy this exact same blueprint for adults by partnering with a private behavioral health operator to lease or acquire underutilized commercial space in Ohio County, retrofitting it into an adult facility backed by Medicaid and private insurance. In short, the opioid epidemic and the 2020 pandemic hit every city in America, but not every city saw the rapid street-level destabilization that Wheeling did. Our crisis over the past six years is explicitly local, and it tracks perfectly with the day the doors were locked at Hillcrest. We did not suddenly run out of compassion or funding in the last six years; we ran out of psychiatric beds. If we want the numbers to drop, we must stop treating this strictly as an economic or pandemic issue and treat it as the acute infrastructure vacancy it actually is. By implementing these structural reforms and expanding our mental health capacity, this Task Force can optimize our current funding, eliminate administrative redundancies, and build a unified system capable of attracting state infrastructure grants. Thank you for your time, your leadership, and your dedication to restoring both public order and human dignity to the City of Wheeling. I look forward to following the progress of the Task Force. Sincerely, Erik Marple https://ledenews.com/rabbi-joshua-lief-named-chair-of-wheeling-homeless-task-force/ Read the full article

My wife is a hero. She is a night shift travel ICU nurse. She is about to change her course. Since our local community hospital closed, she has spent the last six years spending days away from her family to help others that people care for; caring for the people whom need it more. She has lost plenty of holidays and celebrations as her work is selfless. While she will never ask me what to do or when to do it because she is an incredibly clever girl, I do monitor her happiness and try to advise justly. I can tell when she is tired. It is never about the patients, as she would work to the bone for them. It is more often about the administration or how they choose to spend for their talent. Many times, she is overwhelmed as we all are sometimes. The ones who do step it up when they have to are the gears that keep the world going. I have asked her a great many times, "Are you happy?", and she always tells me that it is not about that, but rather that it is necessary. She knows that client care comes first, second, and foremost. Let me circle back a little bit … Thirteen or so years ago, my wife became a registered nurse. Her grandma, aunts, and even my mother helped her find that path from their own contributions to helping others. When she first asked me, "What should I do?", she was in her 30s, and I said as I always do: "Perhaps now is a great time to turn your life around. Go help others." I have never met a more nurturing person. She worked hard full-time and also got her degree. She got positions you have to ask for or else they do not come to you. None of it was luck. It will always be hard work, effort, and drive. When people said, "That is not how that works," she always put in the efforts. It was no surprise to me when she said, "I am tired and need to find something else." Then I did the thing. I had promised it for a while. I knew if she asked, she would receive exactly what she was looking for. That is how the universe works. We ask. We receive. It is always a “No”  if you do not try. She said, "I cannot apply for those positions (because) I do not have the experience." I told her how much faith I had in her and how no one could possibly have an advantage over her, as she has seen all the things. Sometimes that is how it goes. Often, we do not realize the contribution that we have made. Never sell yourself short. Every day is a brand new opportunity to turn it all around. What I realize, the same as our younger kids (as we started over) is that it is not about the miles or dollars, or even the impact that she has had on all those families and peers. It is about the present and how she can make that better than it ever was. For her, money adds up but money, alone, is never enough. It is just math. Time runs out and sometimes we have to worry more about that. More often than not we get caught up in what we are doing and lose sight of what is right in front of us.Ask and ye shall receive. Life can be that easy. If you ever feel like your path might be waning, simply change course and, I promise you, tomorrow is a brand-new day. It is never a matter of your worth, but it is only a sum of your merit. You got this. My wife will be a night supervisor soon and get the management experience she needs to go even further. We all have a starting point. Imagine it: Where do you want to be, a year from now? If you could do anything? We are proud of you. It is never a race. Stay the course and continue to build the world that you want to live in. Imagine how happy her 9- and 10-year-old kids were when they realized that they would see her more. All the things that you think are out of reach are possible if you try. If you never try, though, you will always fail. Take the chance. The one thing that I can guarantee you is that if you do not take a chance, someone else will. You got this. I know you do. Read the full article

Online, I see a lot of people, especially younger folk, working hard building their social network to the point where they are exhausted. It is because they are living two lives. It is like working two full-time jobs. One is the real one and the other is a social presence. It is important to remember that while you can broadcast yourself out there, as anything you choose, you are still here in the real world interacting with other real people. Although all the “Likes” and “Shares” and “Follows” might be small accomplishments, the most important thing will always be to remain present. We only have one “now”. Do not get me wrong. Build the world that you want to live in. Plan it out. And live it. However, remember that it is never a race. As long as you are working toward your goals, it does not matter who is in the audience. They are not the judge of you. You alone have the potential to reach your own desires. While they may cheer for you sometimes, it is far more important that you are your own biggest supporter. It is in the stars. If you dream it, and work hard for it, “It” will happen. By example, I personally make content on many platforms – most of which is not even for me but rather for the other people to whom I can relate. We all have similar goals. I love to see others with ambition find growth and grace succeed. While it is fun to be in the spotlight, it is even better to help make the light get brighter. At any time you could do either, you could become the star or the reason why another star shines, and it does not matter in the end so long as the message gets delivered to the people that need to hear it. What matters more is your personal effort. The real you. Your efforts matter the most. This is your story. Create it. One percent a day. Try hard not to get caught up in the numbers, though, as they do not define you. Your own personal growth does. One inch, one choice, a little bit at a time, and I promise that you can turn it all around if you want to. Always know that I am proud of you. I know people that post 20 times a day. For some creators, everything is content and for others we choose what to share. On my personal profiles online, I am only friends with real-life people whom I consider to be real friends. The kind that you go to war for. On the other pages I produce for, I try to reach a larger audience. It is never about the finish line but merely about supporting common goals and lifting each other up. Even the brightest stars burn out eventually. At the end of the day, it is up to you to ask yourself how bright you shined and what that light reflected on. Never forget all the people and the places and the incredible experiences that you saw along the way. It is and always will be more about the journey than the sum of its parts. If and when people leave the process you are in, that is ok also. We all lose a few – such is life – and sometimes that is just how it goes. Perhaps they are just not ready for this new you right now and all of the light and energy that you bring. Remember what we say? It is never a race. We all have our own rhythm and time, and purpose. It will all add up incredibly. Just continue your journey. I have faith and know that you will. I am proud of you. Read the full article

I know this time of year during the holidays, can be overwhelming and stressful for everyone. It is easy to take time for yourself and skip out on an event with the intent of doing it next year. When I was a kid, one of the things that I remember the most is my Grandmother on my father’s side would make nut rolls. She was an excellent cook, and I learned a lot from her both in cuisine and life lessons. My Grandmother was the type of person to call you "Sweetie" and give you a big hug and say things like "Everything happens for a reason” all the while cooking you waffles and bacon for breakfast. Every single year, she would spend weeks kneading out dough and baking up these little sweet crescent-shaped walnut cookies for everyone she knew. She handed them out by the gallon bag. There must have been hundreds every year, thousands per decade, too many to have kept track of. She would slave at rolling them out on the top of her chest freezer and fill them with a concoction of nuts and butter and sugar only to then cover them with even more butter and sugar. I loved helping bag them up as she wouldn't let me, at a young age, do much else. It was time that we shared every year. They were delicious to say the least. They may have been what led to my Grandfather eventually developing Type 2 diabetes, but no one complained nor did we realize that one day there wouldn't be any more nut rolls. Nut rolls are very popular during the holiday season, and the treat comes in many different forms. My other Grandmother on my mother’s side was a bit different as she had raised her children and didn't see much reason to do it again. I didn't understand that so much when I was younger as I do now. It did help me understand that love can come in many forms. While I only saw her a few times a year, I could always count on a slice of minced meat pie at Christmas. That was our thing. The adults always thought it was strange that I liked it and a piece was always saved for me. To be honest, when I was little by the time we got to her house for the holidays, I was burned out of pumpkin pie for the year and it was a nice change of pace. I can still taste that pie when I think about it and have never had another one since. While there are not many people around anymore who would remember either dish, I am glad that I had those experiences, as I would not trade them for the world. By comparison, my wife comes from a very large family. They try to get together for every holiday. I am glad to be at a point in life where I can join them more than when I allowed work to always get in the way before. They have many of their own traditions, one of which is the game "White Elephant" game. The rules seem to change every year except for one thing – for 21 straight years, even though we bring extra gifts for it and they encourage me to join in, I abstain. There are many, many different food favorites for Christmas dinner, too. I prefer to watch them play and just soak in the joy of seeing a big family come together. With decades passing by I have noticed some of their dishes disappearing also and while we may no longer have homemade noodles or nearly enough deviled eggs, it is still plentiful and always enough. However, it is the simple little things that I find myself missing most of all. My mother made the nut rolls a few years back with my kids and gifted them to me. That is something that I will remember forever. I love thinking about my kids in her kitchen and how it will impact them and their lives. This year, my wife – God bless her – found a local baker and ordered some nut rolls for me and without clarification, received a nut roll loaf, more like a pumpkin roll. It was still delicious, and I love her for trying. She is a travel nurse and spends most holidays away helping others; hence, we have our own new traditions that we practice such as me being the "Head Elf in Charge of Wrapping Gifts." She also sells tie-dyes on the side, and much like the local baker from whom she bought the delicious nut log at the last minute, I currently find myself finishing up her holiday orders at the last minute while she is away at work. What are some new traditions that you have? Ones from days past that you miss? We would love to hear them. Be thankful this holiday season and cherish the time you spend with each other. Read the full article