MASH future hanging in the balance

Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.

Less than two months before it loses its director of the past seven years, the downtown shelter originally designed to help many of the Las Vegas Valley's homeless faces an uncertain future.

As of Sept. 30, San Diego-based Father Joe's Villages will be pulling out of the MASH Village shelter due to lack of funds, a move announced in March.

And although the city of Las Vegas -- which owns the shelter -- closed a search last month for someone to take over the site, many questions remain about who will step in and under what terms.

The result, people close to the process say, is that the city's homeless could lose services -- at least temporarily -- come October.

Issues the city must resolve include repairs to one of the two buildings on the site, both to fix structural damages and to get rid of possibly dangerous mold.

Then there is the question of whether the city will accept an offer made by Catholic Charities to take over a program run out of the other building. The city had been seeking someone to run programs at both.

Also to be determined is who will pay the bills, since the city has made clear it has no money for the shelter -- and Catholic Charities has said the same.

"If we could have gotten this done tomorrow, we would have, but it's been impossible," Betsy Fretwell, deputy city manager, said.

The bottom line is whether the city can get its to-do list taken care of by Oct. 1.

"I'm not sure if one month is going to be enough time to solve all these problems ... and not interrupt the services," said Shawna Parker, analyst for Clark County community resources management. Parker will be meeting with the city and officials from other jurisdictions that work with the homeless to brainstorm on the issue Aug. 22.

Fretwell said two studies done on the building used to house families -- the largest such program in the valley -- produced a series of recommendations.

The first recommendation was to do another study.

The further study would determine what problems exist with the building's foundation, which has cracks and is sinking -- and what must be done to solve them. Afterward, work must be done to fix a series of additional problems, including leaks, and to get rid of mold.

So far the studies have cost $13,458 with more work to be done. The work on the foundation and other areas of the building may cost at least $150,000, Fretwell said.

Father Joe Carroll, director of Father Joe's Villages, said the total cost for work on the building may run into the millions of dollars. The original cost of the building was $2.5 million, he said.

The city says Carroll may be responsible for fixing some of the problems linked to mold; Carroll said the ball is in the city's court.

Asked if the issues tied to the building will be resolved in time for families to make use of the services by Oct.1, Fretwell said, "it looks tight."

There's also the related question of who would administer the services to as many as 300 people, since Catholic Charities offered to run only the shelter's Crisis Intervention Center, a one-stop clearinghouse for dozens of social service agencies.

Fretwell said she hopes the nonprofit will show interest in taking on the second program. She said the city currently has no other takers.

Also at issue is who would pay for Catholic Charities to provide services if both the city and the nonprofit say they don't have themoney.

Faye Johnson, neighborhood development manager for the city and the lead person in the search for someone to step in by Oct. 1, said that some of the federal funds Father Joe's Villages received for the current year may be left over.

But Carroll has said he does not think this will happen.

"I really don't think there will be any money left at that point," he said Tuesday.

As for whether the city would reconsider its position on picking up the tab, Fretwell pointed out that the city stopped channeling funds to the shelter a year ago, and only the City Council could change this decision.

Meanwhile, the prospect of next month reaching an end with hundreds of homeless having one less place to turn to has a veteran observer dismayed.

"It's a shame that, after years of countless meetings and different administrations, we seem to be back where we started," said Linda Lera-Randle El, who served as interim director for MASH Village in 1994, shortly after it opened.

"If we lose these services now, the homeless situation will be more extreme than it has been in the last 18 months or so, and this will be felt in the streets."