Homeless seek out warmth as winds of winter blow

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Monday, Dec. 2, 2002 | 11:08 a.m.

When the sun goes down and the desert winds blow, doorways set under an awning, moving trucks left open or the four walls that set off garbage bins behind a Taco Bell become prime pieces of real estate for thousands of homeless.

"We sit down, we think, 'What are we gonna do next?' We discuss our next move, and plan. ... But the cold is very difficult," said a man who gave only his first name, Bret, and said he also goes by "Cowboy."

Cowboy, who is gearing up for his second winter on the streets, was laying out the recent strategies he and a small group of friends used for escaping the cold as he sat on a wall in a parking lot near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where the group hits up neighboring businesses for everything from day-old sandwiches to a Monday Night Football free buffet at a bar.

While Cowboy and his friends look for a warm spot for a night, homeless advocates are going to local municipalities asking for money to set up something a little better than a doorway for at least a few hundred homeless people until the nights get warmer again. At the same time, city and county officials have asked the region's major shelters to come up with their own proposals for providing extra beds during the winter.

The Clark County Commission on Tuesday will hear some of those proposals.

For four years emergency shelter funding was funneled to a tent that held 250 men at the MASH Village shelter, but that shelter closed in October.

A sprawling new complex run by Catholic Charities has opened up across the street from where MASH was downtown, but only 164 of the beds are for free, emergency shelter, and they are full. Beds at Salvation Army also are filled to capacity.

"I don't have an honest sense of whether we're meeting the whole need (for winter shelter)," Clark County Manager Thom Reilly said. The total number of beds available in the valley is 1,675, according to a report prepared by county staffers. That includes beds that are attached to job and other programs or those that come with a small price, in addition to those that have no restrictions and are free.

Last year the total of shelter beds was 1,343; the net increase is mainly due to the opening of Catholic Charities.

The valley's estimated homeless population runs from 8,000 to 10,000, depending on whom you ask.

But many choose not to stay in shelters, regardless of how many beds are available, because they don't like the schedules and rules and what they say is an unsafe or unpleasant atmosphere.

"I keep hearing people who went (to shelters) are disgusted by the food, the treatment, having to line up at 4 a.m.," said Stephen Philip D'Costa, whom his buddies call "Gandhi," now in his 12th year on Las Vegas' streets. "If I could get my own place, I would prefer that," he said.

Brother David Buer, a Franciscan monk and director of the Poverello House, a center offering services to the homeless, said that he and other advocates hope to convince the county and city to fund about 130 mats that the Salvation Army lays out for men and women.

The Shade Tree, a downtown shelter for women and children, has made a proposal to fund 50 additional beds during the winter months. Brenda Dizon, executive director, didn't disclose the proposal's price tag. However, she said, the shelter has been running 80 percent full.

Catholic Charities has proposed making about 65 more beds available from December to April, at a price of $58,000.

The city of Las Vegas has not put the subject of funding on its council agenda for Wednesday, Sharon Segerblom, director of Neighborhood Services, said.

"There are more available beds than there were last year with the tent, and I think that's an amazing accomplishment," she said.

Last year Las Vegas provided $51,000 to open MASH Village's tent a month earlier than in previous years, providing emergency shelter from November on.

Linda Lera-Randle El, director of Straight from the Streets, a homeless outreach group, said this year's cobbling together of funds and beds for the homeless repeats a problem from past years -- all the beds are in Las Vegas.

"Once again this year, Las Vegas will be the only provider of winter shelter," she said.

"Just last week I had to transport a 68-year-old woman from Henderson to the Shade Tree shelter downtown, because there was nowhere else to take her ... This puts a strain on the system, and the other entities are standing by and letting this happen."

Regardless of how this year's funding works out, this evening thousands like the 65-year-old D'Costa and 42-year-old Cowboy will be seeking a way to sleep warm tonight.

"We're not stupid, you know," he said, an hour before the sun went down.