Adversity isn’t new to Appalachia. We’ve faced boom and bust cycles for over a century. This episode of Inside Appalachia looks at some of those struggles and various efforts to curtail them. We’ll hear stories about West Virginia’s overwhelmed foster care system, to questions about what is killing off apple trees. And we’ll explore the research behind job creation programs ⁠— many of which are supported by federal grants. Do they bring long-term economic impact to Appalachia? 

On this West Virginia Morning, in rural Appalachia, if you face homelessness, it can be challenging to find resources to help get back on your feet.

A pastor in St. Albans, Kanawha County, saw that a homeless encampment consisting of about 10 tents in his community was being pushed out. People were being told they had to leave. So, he decided to help.

But not everyone in the town approves of the work he’s doing.

Independent producer Kyle Vass spent some time this summer looking into what’s been happening with the “tent city.”

The town of Martinsburg in Berkeley County was incorporated on October 18, 1778. The place had been settled originally by Joseph and John Morgan in the 1740s. But it was Scotland native Adam Stephen who put Martinsburg on the map. Stephen established mills along the banks of Tuscarora Creek, built himself a limestone house, and, in 1773, laid out the town. He named it for Colonel Thomas Bryan Martin, a nephew of Lord Thomas Fairfax, who owned much of the present Eastern Panhandle.