Homeless advocate, reverend Curry dies

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 | 11:34 a.m.

As an advocate for the homeless, The Rev. Miles T. Curry frustrated government officials, the police and even others who raised money for the less fortunate.

Curry sued the city of Las Vegas and Clark County in 1989 after Metro Police ordered his rag-tag volunteers to stop collecting on medians and street corners -- the very spots where local firefighters had collected funds for their Muscular Dystrophy Association Boot Drive for 28 years.

The crusade by the controversial founder of the United World Outreach Mission of Mercy forced firefighters to obey existing laws in 1990 and withdraw from medians, resulting in a 40 percent drop in their collections. It also triggered changes to the state street solicitations law and local ordinances.

Curry died Friday in a North Las Vegas hospital. He was 63.

Services for Curry, who lived in North Las Vegas for nine years, will be 3 p.m. Thursday at Palm Mortuary Downtown. Visitation will be noon-3 p.m. Interment will be private.

Curry's efforts sparked news media interest not only in charitable solicitation laws, but also on the dangers of collecting money on busy streets.

An editorial in the July 28, 1989, editions of the Sun noted that the existing law "unenforced to a great degree, is a good one because so many bad things can happen when a human is pitted against a moving vehicle."

The Sun also noted that "to allow the firefighters to stand on the medians and collect money, but not allow other groups to do so, falls under selective prosecution, and that's illegal."

The next year, firefighters were ordered not to stand on the medians, but rather limit their solicitations to the front of stores. As a result, MDA Boot Drive revenues dipped from $143,000 in 1989 to $77,636 in 1990.

Curry, also known as Guy Simmons, came to Southern Nevada from Southern California in 1989 and almost immediately obtained a solicitations permit from the county and city, allowing him to collect for the homeless outside stores.

When Curry expanded operations to street corners and medians, local officials cited the little-used state law to try to stop him.

After police ordered Curry's street collectors -- mostly unkept transients who waived white pails at passing motorists -- to stop soliciting, the minister took the matter to District Court. His lawsuit filed in July 1989 specifically cited the firefighters as an example of selected enforcement.

The city and county then sought changes in the state law that would allow everyone the right to solicit on street corners and medians, yet also provide some controls of the practice.

Though Curry's lawsuit went nowhere, his efforts were the catalyst for the Nevada Legislature changing the street solicitations law in 1991. Local jurisdictions then passed similar ordinances, allowing firefighters to return to the streets in time for that year's MDA fundraiser.

The city of Las Vegas ordinance, for example, now limits street collections to three days during any one year and requires solicitors to obtain a highway solicitation permit, which costs $50. Also, a solicitor must provide proof he has a general liability insurance policy.

Curry was born July 23, 1935, in Ohio. Locally, he also headed up a group called the American Christian Justice Association.

He is survived by his wife, Myrtle Curry, of North Las Vegas.

DONATIONS: In Curry's memory to the Mission of Mercy.