04/24/2024
Bartlett Housing Solutions would like to announce plans moving forward and offer thanks to the community. The Bartlett House and the Board of Directors would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of our partners both old and new who have been working with us navigating our hardships and ensuring that we are successful in the future. The future of homeless services in our area cannot be achieved by Bartlett alone and the outpouring of support from the community, government officials at all levels, and other social services providers has been impressive. We would like to thank Executive Director Brandi Helms of the United Way and their Board of Directors, Christian Help, Healthright, WVCEH, HUD, the Salvation Army, Morgantown RAMP, Valley Healthcare, Rainbow House, WVU School of Social Work, Fairmont-Morgantown Housing Authority, Monongalia County Commission, Commissioner Tom Bloom, City of Morgantown, Emily Muzzarelli, Council Members Danielle Trumble and Brian Butcher, Senator Mike Oliverio, Clear Mountain Bank, Ron Justice, Monongalia County Resources and their Board of Directors as well as the staff of Hazels House of Hope and community advocate Becky Rodd for their efforts in helping us move forward. At the end of March, a multi-agency case review panel was assembled by Bartlett and many of the above agencies have volunteered their time to help us rapidly find housing for the 24 persons still housed at our triage shelter at Hazels House of Hope.
Additionally, it has come to our attention that many feel our funding was stolen by other service providers in the state, to include the Rainbow House. That is not true. The WVCEH could have funded us both equally and they did not. This is not the fault of WVCEH, the only organization responsible for Bartlett’s loss of funding is Bartlett and we are in the process of devising a performance improvement plan with the WVCEH and resubmitting our application as they have requested. We are very grateful to the WVCEH and Senator Mike Oliverio for the opportunity to be given a second chance in our grant application.
We are moving forward in the spirit of collaboration with all of our community partners and service providers. It takes a village working together to address the issues faced by those experiencing homelessness. The Bartlett Board of Directors has been working quickly to assemble an emergency shelter subcommittee with the purpose of ensuring that, should our Triage shelter at Hazels House of Hope be able to remain open, we are operating intimately with other providers in accordance with industry best standards and practices to address homelessness.
In short, we are working tirelessly to move forward in effectively serving our community in the best way possible. We are so proud of and thankful for Joe Sengewalt and Elizabeth Edwards, as well as the rest our staff, who are operating under very stressful conditions daily yet continue to think of others before themselves. If you are interested in volunteering, donating, or becoming a member of the Bartlett team please visit us at www.bartletthousingsolutions.com.
