Homeless turn out for Stand Down

Shaunta Grimes

Wednesday, Nov. 3, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.

Maria Alday's optimism seemed evident as she walked the aisles of the Seventh Annual Stand Down for the Homeless at Cashman Center Tuesday. She called out Spanish pet names to acquaintances, gave hugs freely and stopped several strangers to ask if they liked her new haircut.

Alday, 36, her husband, Mario Orellana, and their sons, Adam, 2, and Mario Jr., 9, have lived at MASH Village for nine months. Alday says she hopes her husband's two-month-old job with Cox Cable will soon lead to a place of their own. "I am ready to leave MASH," she said of the homeless shelter.

To prepare for that move Alday spent her morning at the Stand Down looking for city and county housing opportunities that will make a move more affordable.

"It costs a lot to get into an apartment -- the utilities and everything," Alday said.

The Aldays are among an estimated 12,000 homeless people in Las Vegas, according to the Southern Nevada Homeless Coalition, sponsor of the Stand Down. That estimate, MASH Village Director Ruth Bruland said, includes people without homes who are staying with friends or relatives or living in a car. A study released last week by UNLV's Department of Sociology counted 6,707 homeless people in the Las Vegas Valley.

The Stand Down offers Las Vegas' homeless people a day of one-stop shopping for the daily details that most residents take for granted, as well as assistance that targets their needs. More than 50 organizations on Tuesday offered services from haircuts, dental exams and legal advice to applications for state, city and county aid and for jobs.

More than 2,200 people came to this year's Stand Down, slightly below past years that drew 2,500.

Alday arrived at Cashman Center about 8 a.m., meeting a friend, Richard Cervera, who had come at 6:30 a.m. to hold a place for them near the front of the line.

Hundreds of homeless waited with Alday and Cervera for the doors to open, among them a few families and pregnant women, but the majority were men. Most were dirty and wearing tattered clothing, many carried bed rolls and some left dogs tied outside. There seemed to be a significant number of healthy looking young men waiting to take advantage of the offered programs.

Many of those single, homeless men are veterans -- among the young ones may be veterans of Desert Storm, Bruland said. "You can't underestimate the amount of help these men need," she said. "It isn't my job to judge them. It's my job to help them get off the street if I can."

The coalition began the annual Stand Down in 1993. The event is named after the military term for time off for soldiers in combat. More than 80 cities nationwide hold similar events for veterans but the Las Vegas event is the only one that is open to all homeless people.

Alday came to the Stand Down looking for housing advice, but she left with blankets and clothes for her sons and a new hairdo for herself. When she left the haircut area, 12 inches of her thick, black hair carpeted the floor.

Alday chose not to visit the job fair, but several hundred other people did. Eleven local employers were taking applications, most for future interviews, but Terrible Herbst Oil Company hired two men on the spot for clerk positions.

"At something like this, for a job that pays $6 an hour, you can't expect someone to keep coming back for interviews," Diane Scala, employment services manager for Terrible Herbst, said. "If you see someone who seems reliable and competent, you just hire them."

The job fair is put on by the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. The goal is to get 65 people hired in the next six weeks, Will Lockheart, fair coordinator, said. Stand Down participants were able to register with the state job bank and be sent on job referrals immediately.

"It is easy to say 'people need to get jobs,' but it's not always that easy," Bruland said. "There might be mental health issues. Also in Las Vegas, where many jobs are service-based, it's hard to get a job if you don't have teeth."