Editorial: Compassion in short supply for homeless

Friday, Oct. 26, 2001 | 4:51 a.m.

Last week a local government task force postponed taking action on a plan to quickly provide more housing and additional services to help the homeless. Instead the task force, made up of elected officials and community activists, ordered the city of Las Vegas' staff to collect more information about the matter. Just what the Las Vegas Valley doesn't need: another study of the homeless issue. What we do need are immediate, concrete steps taken so that men, women and children aren't forced to spend their evenings in danger, sleeping on sidewalks and in alleys.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman hasn't done anything to help the situation. The city actually has made it worse by refusing to chip in with Clark County government to help pay for the opening of an emergency winter shelter. Goodman would rather spend his time claiming that Salt Lake City officials have bused 1,000 homeless people to Las Vegas, a bogus allegation that is simply an attempt to change the subject so that he can avoid dealing with the homeless issue.

Goodman has said that a long-term approach should be used to deal with the homeless. While he is right that a comprehensive assessment is necessary, it is cold-hearted to refuse to take emergency measures that could ease the plight of hundreds of people who are forced to spend their nights outdoors as winter fast approaches.