Monday, April 29, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Peter Fay's premonition was ominous: "Before Easter Sunday, someone will die at the corner of Sahara Avenue and Rancho Drive."
Fay came to this conclusion while driving some friends to a doctor's office on Rancho. Several homeless people darting out into moving traffic nearly caused him to crash. He could see that others were living in the bushes near the intersection.
That weekend, a 47-year-old homeless man was found stabbed to death and stuffed inside a drainage ditch on the north side of Sahara and Interstate 15. A few days earlier, another transient was hospitalized after being hit by a truck when he ran into traffic above the intersection on I-15.
Homeless and with no means of support other than panhandling, many vagrants have opted to establish camp-like residences under shady viaducts, in underbrush just off interstate embankments and adjacent to busy thoroughfares.
City, county and state officials say laws really don't address these cardboard-box homesteaders. Only when complaints are lodged do the entities swing into action by calling the police or sending road crews out to dismantle the shantytowns.
Are these vagrants' lives and those of passing motorists placed in danger by them living so close to moving traffic? Some officials think so, but admit they have no solutions.
HELP is available
"The laws are vague on what can be done," said Metro Police Officer Bob Nixon of the Homeless Evaluation Liaison Program (HELP), a program that aids homeless people. "We just don't have any laws that have teeth where we can arrest people on."
All Nixon says he can do is talk to homeless individuals living near roadways in the hope of coaxing them into entering a shelter. He says about half take him and his partner up on their offers, while others return to the same sites within a few days.
"Just about every major viaduct or underpass has at least one homeless person living there," Nixon says. "The city, county and state can (charge them with trespassing) if they want, but usually they don't. Only two officers handle the entire valley. There are easily 40 to 50 sites around town."
Nixon says the police are trying their best to find shelter for homeless individuals and families, but unless someone complains about being harassed or a property owner wants them removed, their hands are tied.
"The largest problem we have in Las Vegas is we don't have the numbers (of police) to put toward the situation," Nixon says. Phoenix has 12 officers on its homeless team and Philadelphia and New York City each has 150, he says.
Sheriff Jerry Keller, who formed HELP in 1992, says he started the unit to avoid lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and to save the police department money.
"We found we saved a lot of public dollars, easily $300,000 to $400,000 a year," Keller says of what it cost to send several officers out into the field. "I'm pretty proud of the work these people (HELP) are doing with the help of the homeless advocates."
With Metro down 240 officers, according to departmental analysts, Keller admits getting homeless people away from busy thoroughfares isn't the department's top priority.
Fearful of ordinances
Mike Dreitzer of Nevada Legal Services and a homeless advocate says his organization would have to take a careful look at any proposed ordinance directed at homelessness.
Though he doesn't feel homeless people should be living near busy streets, if a law is passed, he's worried they might be targeted simply because they are homeless. Being homeless is not a crime, he emphasizes.
"A law by itself would not solve the problem," Dreitzer says. "It would be irresponsible to pass a law. There are ordinances downtown against panhandling, and we have problems with them."
Nadia Wiggins, public information officer with the city of Las Vegas, says the city has no laws prohibiting camping. City Attorney Brad Jerbic says roadside makeshift homes would be considered camps.
Assistant District Attorney J. Charles Thompson says homeless people have no legal right to be living near county roads, but the laws don't address the issue.
"If they are on public property, we cannot cite them for camping," Thompson says. "We don't arrest them because there is no room in the jails. I'm not sure I know what we can do about people building homes in little boxes on public land. This office doesn't have an answer."
Scott Magruder, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, says it is illegal for people to be living along the interstate. But he's not sure any laws would apply to people living under the viaducts.
"It's one of those situations where we don't have a concrete answer," Magruder says.
Dave Sangster, highway maintenance supervisor for the Department of Transportation in Southern Nevada, says his crews only go out to sites near the interstate when they receive complaints or if road repairs need to be done. His crews routinely tell homeless people to leave, but within a few days they are back.
Solution baffling
"These people have to go somewhere. I don't know what the solution is," Sangster says. "Someone should take old buildings around town and fix them up for the homeless. You've got to give alternatives for the homeless, or they will stay where they are forever.
"We are understaffed (in the highway department.) When we get a call about the homeless, we act on it as soon as we can."
Fay, who's lived in Las Vegas for 23 years, has never seen so many homeless people living near busy highways.
"Those are no places for a human being to live," he says. "This is a dangerous situation waiting to happen. You can't see those people when they jump out in front of you.
"I'm not after anyone. But that is no place for a person to be on his feet. If they come in contact with a 5,000-pound vehicle, they will lose."
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