Where I Stand—Mike O’Callaghan: Don’t fear the homeless

Thursday, Aug. 2, 2001 | 8:51 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

WE FIND IT EASY TO CRITICIZE Mayor Oscar Goodman's view of the homeless, but not many people do understand their plight. The mayor's past record shows he does have concern for people who need help. Also, the pushing of the homeless from one place to another started long before he was elected to public office.

The mayor's idea of using the state prison at Jean as a housing facility for the homeless reflects his frustration with a problem he hasn't been able to solve. Actually the suggestion may have some merit if the homeless were a homogeneous group of people. If all of them just wanted to take it easy, and lie around in an air-conditioned building and be fed by the city, his idea might work.

People who work with the homeless find that they have as many individual differences as ordinary people at our places of work or in our neighborhoods. Let's get this straight: They aren't a homogeneous bunch of bums. Large numbers of the homeless go to work in low-paying menial jobs every day when they have the opportunity. No matter how hard they work it seldom brings in enough money to afford a weekly motel room or apartment.

Is the city going to provide "adequate" bus service for the homeless in Jean so they can get jobs, work every day, and return after work? If the now empty prison was built closer to town where it was supposed to be built, before special interest politics and real estate agents pushed it out to Jean, the mayor's basic idea would be worthy of serious consideration.

No matter where the facility is located, there are some homeless individuals who may not want to be housed in an empty prison. The answers the mayor gave reporter Dana Drake of Las Vegas ONE (Cox cable channels 1 and 39), when asked about this issue, aren't satisfactory. Here's that exchange:

Drake: "A lot of people will say you are just trying to move them away."

Mayor: "I am."

Drake: "And if they ... if they are not going to want to go, if they want to live here?"

Mayor: "That's tough, you can't have everything you just want. You have to have what's best for the community as a whole. And if we are able to provide the services for these people and make them into useful citizens and for those who can't take care of themselves for us to take care of them, that's my objective and I don't care if they want to move there or not. Sometimes people don't have choices."

The mayor is right, some people don't have choices and not being homeless would probably be one of the first choices of the people he was talking about. However, as fellow human beings, who aren't convicted criminals, they do have the right to decide they won't be moved to an empty prison a long distance from town. Yes, they are fellow Americans and I have found many of them with prior honorable service in the military.

As you can tell, the mayor touched a soft spot with me and it is still stinging. Overall he has been an active public servant and has many good ideas. The Jean prison idea isn't one of them.

As for the war between the mayor and founder of MASH, Father Joe Carroll, that's no place for me or anybody else. When it comes to the plans for using the old post office, the mayor was not only there first, but his ideas are better than Carroll's.

While on the subject, allow me to ask where are all of the homeless people the city ran out of their gathering place a few weeks ago? Don't tell me they just disappeared. No, little by little they will again congregate in places where they can socialize and protect each other. We have to understand that the homeless have much more to fear from us than we have to fear from them.

Sure there are a few bad guys among them, but there are probably even more bad guys in our area who live in nice houses and drive expensive cars. Most of the homeless I have come to know help those among their number who need a hand up from time to time. Very simply, they are like most of us but are less fortunate for many different reasons.