Editor’s Note: The following is the third in a series of articles investigating the homelessness issue in Randolph County.

ELKINS — A City of Elkins official said camps of homeless people have repeatedly been removed from a hidden-from-sight part of a city park.

During the Elkins Parks and Recreation Commission’s Oct. 16 meeting, Parks and Recreation Director Tom Tesar spoke about recently having to remove an encampment in a secluded area of Glendale Park known as the “dump pile.”

Tesar later confirmed this with The Inter-Mountain, explaining that city employees have had to remove encampments in that spot “multiple times.”

“We discover the camps through the normal course of work that takes us back there on a regular basis,” Tesar told The Inter-Mountain later. “If we find people present, we tell them that camping isn’t allowed on city property and that they must clean up and move on.”

However, Tesar said cleaning up the “dump pile” is mostly left up to the EPRC.

“People have always been good about moving on, but not about cleaning up,” Tesar said. “In virtually every case, we are left having to clean up the mess ourselves. If people aren’t present at the camp, we just start cleaning it up because we know that’s where the situation is heading anyway.”

The “dump pile” is a secluded spot in Glendale Park where, according to Tesar, the EPRC disposes of scrap brush and masonry materials. While the spot isn’t forbidden to the public, Tesar said the EPRC discourages it.

“We don’t disallow the public to walk back there, but we don’t encourage it either,” Tesar said. “Sometimes when you publicize ‘don’t camp here,’ some folks interpret that as ‘hmmm…must be a decent place to camp or they wouldn’t have to work so hard to discourage it.'”

This year, several West Virginia cities, including Wheeling and Clarksburg, have passed camping bans to discourage homeless encampments within city limits, but Elkins has had a camping ban in place for more than six years.

In February 2018, Elkins City Council approved an ordinance outlawing “unauthorized camping” and making it illegal on both public and private property within city limits.

The ordinance was approved just as an influx of workers for the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline was expected to descend on Randolph County.

A longtime local public servant wants the public to know the issues of homelessness and addiction go hand-in-hand.

Bill Brock, the former mayor of Mill Creek, explained to The Inter-Mountain that he really doesn’t “know of anybody that’s homeless that’s not also addicted.”

“We have two main bridges in Mill Creek and there’s people living under both of them,” Brock said. “I don’t know the percentages, say, the percentage of people in Elkins who’re homeless compared to Mill Creek. I’d say they’re probably about the same. I mean, for that small of a town. There is another area that’s not under the bridge, there’s two or three people living there. I’m sure if you go outside of town, just a little bit, you’d find some more. And like I said, they’re all addiction-related.”

Brock added that he hadn’t noticed any dips in the homeless population in Mill Creek. In fact, Brock said he thinks it’s getting worse.

“It seems to me like it’s gradually getting worse, and that’s not just Mill Creek, I mean, that’s everything,” Brock said. “I mean, just look around Elkins. It’s everywhere and West Virginia seems to be leading the nation.”

When asked what services Mill Creek offered to help support the homeless population in that area, Brock said that it mostly falls on the Randolph County Homeless Shelter in Elkins to handle those situations, but he also mentioned Tyrand Cooperative Ministries, also known as Tyrand Parish.

“The only thing up at Mill Creek that helps in that respect is Tyrand Parish, and that’s not really what they get involved in,” Brock said. “They get involved in people that had a fire or something, but long-term homelessness and all that… they don’t have the money. They have a food pantry. There’s a blessing box in the park… They have clothing, if they need clothing, they have clothes. Anybody can go over there and buy clothes, but I’m sure they give them out to people that need it and stuff like that.”

For more information about Tyrand Cooperative Ministries, call 304-335-2788. For more information about the Randolph County Homeless Shelter, call 304-636-5193.

– Staff Writer Taylor McKinnie and Executive Editor Brad Johnson contributed to this article.