Wednesday, Sept. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
The federal government has awarded more than $3 million in grants to Las Vegas nonprofit groups to provide housing for the homeless.
Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada/H.E.L.P. Partnership, the Economic Opportunity Board of Clark County and the Women's Development Center will receive Supportive Housing Program grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
"Providing assistance for the homeless should be a community effort," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who announced the grants along with Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev. "Temporary housing and supportive services are essential for moving from homelessness to independent living. These grants will allow these worthy Southern Nevada organizations to maintain and expand their efforts to fight homelessness."
Bryan said: "The grants will allow these organizations to perform a vital function for the community. The resources provided through the grants can be the link from homelessness to housing. As Southern Nevada continues to experience growing pains, issues like homelessness will continually need to be addressed with programs designed to promote independent living."
Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada in a joint venture with H.E.L.P., a New York-based program that is one of the largest transitional housing developers in the nation, received the lion's share -- nearly $2.7 million.
The two organizations have earmarked the money to construct 120 units of transitional housing on the St. Vincent's Plaza site on Main Street. The units will provide up to two years of housing for single men and women who are rebounding from homelessness.
According to Michael Husped, a representative of Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, "We are still working with the initial criteria, but individuals must have graduated from a local shelter program where people receive three or four months of job training. The transitional housing provides the missing link in the continuum from homelessness to job training to permanent housing."
Husped added that $800,000 of the grant may be used for construction, and the balance must fund operating and support services for residents.
Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada/H.E.L.P. Partnership recently submitted a request for an additional $800,000 from the city of Las Vegas to help with the construction. Husped predicts that if the local grant is approved, the project will break ground next fall.
Michael Pawlak, director of the private, nonprofit Economic Opportunity Board of Clark County, said his organization's $348,279 grant will go toward the renovation of transitional housing units for homeless families with children. The project will include tearing down some "really nasty structures in West Las Vegas" and building five-unit buildings on two sites.
"The grant covers a three-year program," Pawlak said. "In addition to housing, the most critical component of the funding is the provision of support services for the residents. We hope to break ground on the program within 90 days. That may be wishful thinking because we have to wait until the money is physically in our hands, but we are very excited to begin."
Pawlak said none of the organizations was sure that such funding would even come into Nevada. "Success required an intense joint effort from service providers, municipalities and the city of Las Vegas," he said. "Las Vegas acted as a grant sponsor and worked in conjunction with Clark County, North Las Vegas, Henderson and United Way."
The grants were part of $675 million in nationwide housing grants announced Friday.
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