Caught in the middle: Program problems have homeless back on streets

Monday, April 22, 2002 | 11:13 a.m.

In a case that one detective from the Las Vegas Metro Police Fraud Unit called "a real can of worms," about two dozen homeless men and women are back on the streets after a program that said it would help them began to crumble.

Call First, a program designed to help recovering drug addicts and alcoholics, offered 22 people what looked like a fresh start after they were swept from a downtown homeless camp March 24.

They were taken to one of four halfway houses Call First operated to help 70 people, a worker for the program said.

In the weeks that followed, the program was evicted from two of the houses, including the northwest Las Vegas house where the downtown group was residing, scattering the homeless and displacing others the program was helping.

"Unfortunately, the homeless were caught in the middle on this one," said Linda Lera-Randle El, director of Straight from the Streets, a homeless outreach program.

The situation not only displaced the 22 homeless people from the downtown camp. It will make it harder for the homeless to trust small, lesser-known programs offering help in the future, Lera-Randle El said.

"This sort of thing gets around, and people will be less likely to follow up on something like this next time," she said.

The program came to the attention of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman in the wake of the Palm Sunday homeless sweep, when Ken May called City Hall, saying he was the program's director and wanted to help.

On March 29 May picked up the men and women from a homeless camp under a bridge on Owens Avenue and took them to a house in northwest Las Vegas. Many of them welcomed the opportunity to get off the streets in the wake of increasing pressure from authorities. Several said they saw the program's promise of help with finding work and relative lack of restrictions compared with area shelters as favorable.

But within two weeks, the promise vanished amid finger-pointing among Clyde Bates, the owner of Call First, Jonathan Small, the owner of the house where the homeless were taken, and May.

The result: The homeless left, Small evicted Bates, and Bates filed a complaint against May with Metro Police.

Metro Police's fraud unit confirmed that an investigation is underway. Attempts to reach May were unsuccessful.

Craig Borelis, who with his wife, Pauline, stayed at the house about a week, said that Bates called the homeless together their third day in the house and explained to them how to apply for rent vouchers and food stamps with Clark County Social Services.

"He said he'd charge us a certain amount for rent and give back $75 'as an incentive,' and take our food stamps and do the shopping for us," Borelis said.

At least one of the men at the house said he paid $300 in rent to May.

"I asked him who I should make the check out to and he said, 'Ken May,' " Frank Duda said. "I knew I shouldn't have done that.

"He also said I should give him my entire Social Security check the following month and he would give me some spending money back."

An advocate for the National Coalition for the Homeless questioned the way the program was set up.

"It's always better to have case managers working with the homeless to learn how to handle their own money in a responsible way," said Michael Stoops, director of community organizing for the Washington-based organization. "As for the food stamps, no reputable program working with the homeless would do this, since by law the stamps are given to individuals, not organizations."

Bates' program has been evicted from two other locations, according to county and court records. Bates lost one of the houses, at 509 Madison Ave., in December for nonpayment of the mortgage.

Annie White, owner of another house at 3520 Trout Lake St., obtained an eviction order on April 4, after what she said were ongoing problems since renting the house to him in September.

White, who runs a Bible study group at Second Baptist Church, said she rented the house to him, because she shared an interest in helping the homeless.

"I thought it was a great opportunity to help these people," she said.

Bates said the problems at Madison stemmed from another person failing to pay the mortgage.

It was unclear where the residents of those houses went. Many of them were homeless when they entered the program.

When asked about the program, the evictions and the fate of the homeless, Bates answered, "I'm tired of helping other people and I'm going back to working for myself. It's not worth it to me, all this trouble." He said he had one house left, with 10 people being treated.

Borelis said Bates and May held motivational meetings with the homeless in their house as many as three times a day.

"These were mostly to tell us how they were getting donated one thing or another, and how we would be able to have a piece of those things if we stuck with them," he said.

The timing of May's call to Goodman's office was no accident, Lera-Randle El said.

"These people were under constant pressure, with bulldozers bearing down on them and the entire community looking on," she said, referring to the March 24 sweep.

"Look at it this way," Borelis said. "If you're walking through the desert and you're thirsty and I offer you a Pepsi and a sandwich, aren't you going to follow me?" It's not worth it to me, all this trouble."